Justin in Charge
by tilante
Summary: sequel to Alex Gets Punished; Justin goes off to college, and that puts a strain on Justin and Alex's new relationship.
1. Chapter 1

Note: This is a sequel to an earlier story, _Alex Gets Punished._ Reading that before this is recommended, but I've tried to write this story to stand on its own as well.

_--_

_Why does everyone have to make such a big deal out of this?_ Alex fought to keep her irritation from showing on her face as the family carried Justin's things to his new dorm room.

And _that_ was what she was really irritated about. The carrying was no big deal -- she'd grabbed his laptop, which wasn't really heavy at all, but was delicate enough to give her an excuse to not carry anything else. Which was the point -- let Dad and Justin do the heavy lifting. Besides, it was nice that Justin trusted her enough to let her carry his laptop without any fuss.

_Now if only he wasn't moving out._ For four months now, Justin and Alex had been more than brother and sister -- they'd secretly been lovers. They'd been spending one or two, sometimes three nights a week sleeping in the same room. It was a wonder they hadn't been caught, even though they'd been careful almost to the point of paranoia, their "night" together usually lasting three hours or so. It had played hell with both of their sleep schedules, but Alex had to admit she loved sleeping with her brother's arms around her, his breath in her hair, feeling warm and safe and loved.

But now what were they going to do? Sure, he'd made his plans to move out into the dorm before they'd been together, but... Alex couldn't help feeling like he was leaving her. And the other students they were passing didn't help.

_That blonde's cute... and she looks a lot like that Kari Bergsdorf that Justin had a crush on two years ago. _Alex looked to see if her brother was looking at the girl. His head was turned away toward the elevator, and she felt a little relief -- but only a very little. _She'll be around here. And she's not going to be the only one. And _I _won't get to be around him every night._

--

"Oh, my baby's all grown up and leaving!" Theresa Russo took her son Justin's head in both hands and pulled it over next to hers. "My little boy's gotten so big!"

Alex rolled her eyes at their mother's antics, not finding them amusing in the least right now. "He might want to hold off on getting any bigger -- this room won't fit much more." And indeed, with the three of them plus Justin and Alex's dad Jerry, plus their little brother Max, Justin's new dorm room was full enough that they all had to be careful not to bump into each other.

"Okay, Theresa. Let him breathe." That was their father, Jerry, in the act of gently prying his wife off Justin. Meanwhile, Max was looking about the room, brows scrunched down in what most would simply see as a look of confusion, but Alex knew signaled he was about to ask a question... which could be exceedingly obvious, or completely off-the-wall. She tilted her head to the side a little, watching him and waiting.

"So... where's the rest of it?"

"This is it," Justin replied. "Desk, dresser, closet, mini-fridge, bed. One standard-issue single-occupancy dorm room."

"You mean, there's no bathroom? There's no _kitchen?_" Alex had to fight down a giggle at the tone of horror in Max's voice there.

"The bathrooms are down the hall. I'm going to get a microwave, and there's a food court down at the student union --"

Justin's explanation was cut off by Theresa. "Oh no! My baby is not eating institutional food made by the lowest bidder! You can come home for dinner, Justin!"

This time, Justin and Alex both rolled their eyes. Their mother had been going off on rants even more than usual the last two weeks, all about her "baby". Jerry moved back over to her, trying to calm her down again. "Honey, it's okay. Justin's not going to let himself get sick on bad food -- honey...."

Alex sidled up to her older brother -- she had to sidle, because of how little space there was in the room with five of them in it. "This is an all-boys dorm, isn't it?"

"No -- it's alternating floors. The even floors are all boys, the odd floors all girls." Justin looked at Alex, wondering what she was thinking.

_Oh, great. Three floors of girls, in the same building with _my _Justin. And this is the honors dorm, so his nerdiness isn't going to be protecting me. _Not letting the frown she was feeling touch her face, Alex asked Justin, "Oh. So... there should be a ladies' room on the next floor down. I'm going to go there quick." _And scout the competition_, she didn't say.

"Oh... I don't think you're supposed to walk around the building unescorted, since you're not a student. I'll come with you." Justin gave her a quick smile, and Alex gave a small, fragile-looking smile in return. _At least he wants to be with me now._

They left their parents and Max unpacking the two last boxes and walked to the stairs, carefully not touching there, where there was a chance that one of the family would open the door still and see them. On the landing between floors, Justin felt safe enough to take his sister's hand.

At his touch, she stopped walking, looked at him, then suddenly turned and hugged him, hard. Surprised, it took Justin a second or so before he embraced Alex, then kissed her, first on the temple, then lowering his face down to kiss her lips, softly and slowly.

He took a step forward, putting Alex between himself and the wall, and kissed her again, more hungrily, taking several seconds. They kept it a surface kiss, their lips playing with each other, knowing they didn't have much time before their parents would come looking.

It was Alex who broke the kiss. "Umm... I really do need the bathroom," she said, blushing.

"Okay." Justin smiled, taking Alex's hand again, and they walked up to the fifth floor, then down the hall to the bathroom. "I'll be right back," she said, giving Justin a quick smile. "Don't go anywhere."

"Sure thing." Justin darted his head down and gave Alex a quick kiss. "You're worth waiting for." Alex half-skipped into the bathroom, feeling happier than she had in days. The bathroom was huge, with a dozen sinks at the entrance, and two halls going to the sides -- the left with a row of bathroom stalls, the right with showers. Another girl, going out, passed Alex, but Alex barely noticed her, happy for the moment.


	2. Chapter 2

When Alex came back out of the bathroom, her brief ride of happiness hit a pothole. Two of them, actually - the number of girls who were talking to Justin. She assessed them instantly.

The first target of Alex's assessment was the girl Justin was speaking to at the moment. _Medium height, slightly plump - but still with a figure - and with mousy brown hair in a ponytail. Round-eyed glasses, no makeup, third generation hippie clothes. Threat level: unknown._

Her eyes slid over to the second girl, then narrowed. _Slightly taller, thin, bottle-blonde. Must've just done it, since her roots look okay. Pretty face, light makeup, tank top, jeans. Knows she's pretty, if she's wearing that. Probably smart in spite of that hair, since she's here in the honors dorm. Threat level: high._

All this went through Alex's head in the moment it took Justin to look, see that it was her who had come out, and start to open his mouth. "Oh, hey. This is my -"

"Girlfriend," Alex said, cutting Justin off. She slid through the space between the girls and latched onto Justin with one arm, kissed him on the cheek. "I'm Alexandra, but everybody calls me Alex. And I see you've already met my big Justin-bear here." _Justin-bear? Where did I get that from? Harper? Ah well... as long as they know he's mine..._

"Oh," the blonde put in. "Nice to meet you. I'm Beth, and this is Gina. Are you both in this dorm?" She smiled, and her teeth were perfectly white, even, and sparkling in a way that made a bolt of pure hatred go through Alex.

"Alex isn't -"

"_in this dorm_," Alex said, again cutting Justin off. "We got our applications in a little later, and didn't get the same dorm. But you'll be seeing a lot of me, since Justin is here."

"Oh?" Gina frowned a little. "Justin was just telling us about how he got his application in early, and was able to get a single."

"Oh, yeah... that was Justin. Mine was the late one, really. I just said 'we' because we're, you know, a couple. Isn't that right?" She turned to Justin and gave him a bright smile. Not as bright as Miss-Perfect-Teeth over there, maybe, but bright. _That's right. We are sending no signals to anyone that say that you might be available, or that I'm still in high school. And most especially not that I am your sister._

"That's right," Justin said - not that Alex had left him any choice, really.

Beth gave the two of them an obviously doubtful look. "Really? What's your major, Alex?"

"Fashion design," Alex said, just as Justin said "She's undecided."

"No, Justin, I changed it last week, remember?" She gave him a playful nudge, slightly harder than necessary. Well, actually, a lot harder than necessary.

"Fashion design? I didn't know there was a fashion design department here." Gina frowned, looking at Alex.

"Oh, no, _he_ said fashion design. I said social work." _I'm sure I saw that in the brochure Justin was looking at._ Alex smiled easily, while Justin did his best to smile as well, with far less success.

"Oh, I'm in social work too!" Beth said, bouncing slightly. It caused parts of her to move about, which in turn caused Alex to revise her opinion of how thin Beth was, and hate her more. "Maybe we'll have some classes together!"

"Yeaaaaahh... no. I just changed to it, so I'm not in any of the classes for it this semester." _Are they on semesters? Please be on semesters._ "I'm just doing general requirements classes."

"Oh, well, that's too bad. Anyway, it was nice meeting you both. I'm in 521. Drop by any time!" Beth gave another too-perfect smile.

"Sure, we'll do that," Alex replied with a smile. _Right about the same time we play hockey in Hell. _Beth turned to go, and Alex turned her attention to Gina. _One down, one to go._

"Gina's majoring in math, and it looks like we're going to have Calculus together. Isn't that cool?" Justin smiled down at Alex as if that were actually something to be happy about.

"I was thinking about starting a study group," the hippie-girl said. "There should be a lot of people in this dorm who are in it. What's your email address?" she asked, taking out a pad of paper and pen from a pocket. "I'm going to let everyone know once I know when and where we can meet."

"Justin, your parents are going to be looking for us in a minute. We ought to get back to your room." Alex tugged lightly on his arm, then harder when he didn't move.

"Alex, just a second. Here, I'll write it down for you, that'll be faster." He took the pad and pen from Gina's hand, wrote quickly, then handed it back to the girl, who was smiling up at him in a way that made Alex's eyes narrow. _Geek girl crush, great, just what I need. Can this day get _any _worse?_

Half a minute later, in the stairwell, Justin gave Alex a look she knew well - his 'what kind of trouble are you trying to start now' look. "Okay... what was that all about?"

"That was me marking my territory. I'm not about to let any of these girls try to sink their hooks into you."

Justin gave her a smile Alex couldn't quite read. "Sure you don't just want to use a branding iron? Give me the rocking-A? I'll bet Mr. Laritate has an iron somewhere..." He had to duck then, as Alex smacked him. Unfortunately, she allowed for it, and Justin got a thump on the ear.

"Okay, just kidding!" He grabbed her arms before she could hit him again, and looked down into her eyes, which were narrowed at him. "Alex... I love you. You can trust me. I'm not going to go looking for anybody else."

"I know I can trust you - it's _them_ I don't trust. I'll bet half the girls here have never been to this city before - which means they don't have a boyfriend, which means they'll all be lost and helpless and be looking for some really nice, cute guy who can show them around, and -"

"Alex? Justin?" Their dad's voice came echoing up from the floor below, and Justin immediately released Alex's arms and looked down. He wasn't in view yet, so he couldn't see them, which was a relief - but how much had he heard?

"Yeah, Dad... we're coming." Justin started down the stairs. Alex followed, fuming silently. Justin didn't seem to be taking this seriously enough, and there was a lot more she wanted to say... and when was she going to get to say it? _I don't know yet... but he's going to hear it._


	3. Chapter 3

At the landing on Justin's floor, their Dad turned to Alex. "I need to talk to Justin for a minute. Alex, tell your mom we're going downstairs to look at the laundry room here, and we'll be back in a few minutes."

"Okay," she said, and went out into the hallway as her Dad and Justin continued down the stairs. _Now what could that be about? Well, one way to find out..._ She ran to the door of Justin's room, knocked.

A moment later, Max opened it. Immediately, Alex said, "Hey, Dad wants to go downstairs to look at the laundry room. He told me to tell you we'll be back in a few minutes. Okay, I've gotta catch up." She gave a quick wave and hurried off, not waiting for any response her Mom might have.

Coming back to the stairs, she opened the door carefully, then smiled and slipped in silently, hearing their footsteps below. She followed, walking quietly and staying a floor back, listening. _He wanted to talk to Justin... so why aren't they talking?_

Jerry Russo didn't being talking to his son until they reached the basement, and were out of the stairwell. "Justin -- I heard what Alex said to you. And she's right -- there are going to be girls noticing you here."

Justin had a moment of panic at the first sentence, then relief at the second. _Obviously he didn't hear all of it. Whew!_ "I know. But I'm planning on focusing on school right now. I'm not planning to --"

Jerry cut Justin off with a wave of his hand. Back in the stairwell, Alex couldn't see that, but, with her ear pressed against the door, she could hear as Jerry continued talking. "Son -- I found the box you had in the top of your closet while we were moving things." In the stairwell, Alex's eyes widened. That was where Justin was keeping the box with the condoms they were using, since Alex didn't want to ask Mom to put her on the Pill. Not to mention the handcuffs and blindfold....

"Oh, uh, uh --" Alex could practically hear Justin scratching at his head in that nervous way he had, and it made her smile again. "-- that was kind of a gag thing. Zeke and some of the other guys at school got me that stuff as a going-to-college gift...." Alex smiled wider, sure that Justin was turning red as he got his explanation out.

"It's okay," she heard their father say. "You don't have to make excuses. You're a grown man now, Justin. I know you're going to be, um, having sex. You've always been responsible, and I'm glad you've got the... umm...." Alex had to put her hand over her mouth as she fought to keep from laughing. "... the protection," their dad finally got out. "I'm looking forward to having grandkids, but in about ten years or so. So... remember to be careful, and use what you've got. The condoms, I mean. Okay?"

_Just great. Dad declares open season on college girls. Bang 'em all, son, just wear a condom._ She held back the deep sigh she felt like making. _He won't do that. He's not like that. _But while her brain thought that, her heart and gut were sending a different message -- that of course he would. Whatever he might say, he wasn't going to stay with Alex. Riley hadn't, and Dean had just been using her. Justin wouldn't be any different.

There was no answer to that 'Okay?' which Alex could hear, but she imagined that Justin was nodding enthusiastically. _What else would he be doing. Trust a guy to think with his penis. _Their dad went on, saying, "Now that we've got that out of the way -- don't mention anything about this to your mom. With her on her 'my little boy' kick, we wouldn't hear the end of it for weeks. I put your box in the closet in the lair -- you can get it from there later, nobody looks there but you and me."

"But that's not what I brought you down here for, Justin. You're an adult now, and I think it's time for you to decide when you use magic. So I wanted you to know -- you don't need my permission any more. I trust you to use your magic responsibly."

Alex, still listening, felt a surge of envy as she listened to this. "Dad... thanks. I won't let you down," Justin said, and she could hear how pleased he was. _Yeah. Another thing for you to be happy about._

"I know you won't. And there's one more thing before we go back up." At that, Alex pressed her ear even harder against the door. One more thing? What could be more important than being allowed to use magic without supervision? Unfortunately, just as their dad started to talk again, someone else came into the stairwell, talking, and it was filled with the echoes of their voices, and the sounds of their feet.

_Whoever you are, hurry it up! I'm trying to eavesdrop here!_ They were going more than one floor, though, it seemed, and Alex grew increasingly frustrated, able to tell that Justin and her dad were talking, hearing Justin being excited again... and then they stopped. There was silence for a good ten seconds.

The voices upstairs went away as a door swung shut. _Finally!_ And then she could hear her dad clearly again, in time to hear him saying, "Okay. Well, that's that, then. Let's go back up to your room."

_Uh-oh. _Alex took off up the stairs, as fast as she could go without them being able to hear her through the door. She barely got up onto the first landing before she heard the door open, and hoped they wouldn't hurry as she continued up.

It was six floors up, in a hurry, and by the time Alex got to the top, the blood was pounding in her ears, and she was fighting to keep from gasping. She thought they'd started talking again, but she hadn't been able to pay attention. Whatever it was, it couldn't be secret, or they wouldn't be talking about it in the stairwell.

She muttered "go through mo through" and stepped through the door, then ran down the hall to Justin's dorm room and knocked quickly, remembering just in time to cancel the spell so her hand wouldn't just go through the door. Max opened it again, and she stepped in quickly.

"Oh, Alex, you're back. Where are your father and Justin?" Her mom was putting some of Justin's books up on the shelf set on the wall. It looked like pretty much everything else was already put away. _Not that there was much to put away, _Alex thought.

"They're right behind me. Should be here in just a minute." A confirming knock came, and she said, "See?" She stepped to the door, opened it, and waved the two in. "Welcome back," she said, knowing that Justin and Dad would take it to mean that she'd been here the whole time, while her Mom would think she was being sarcastic. "It's just like you left it -- tiny and depressing."

Justin gave Alex a look, which she ignored. Instead, she crossed the twelve feet or so to the bed and sat down on it, hard, so the springs squeaked. "Noisy. You might have to do something about that, if you're going to bring girls here."

"Alex!" That was her mom, shooting Alex an angry look, then jerking her eyes toward Max. Justin shot her a piqued look as well, which she returned by looking innocent.

"What? It's the only place to sit in here, besides the desk chair."

"All right -- enough," their dad cut in. "Justin, it looks like we've got everything in here, so... I guess we'll get out of your way, son." He stepped to Justin then, and gave him a hug. Their mom came in from the other side and joined in, and then Max hugged as well, while Alex sat and rolled her eyes.

They broke it, Max first, then Jerry, then Theresa, who turned to look at Alex. "You don't have a hug for your big brother? You're not going to see him 'til Tuesday, remember."

_Oh, I'll see him before then. One way or another. _Aloud, Alex said, "Oh... I guess." She stood up off the bed, took a step toward Justin, was surprised when he stepped forward as well and grabbed her in an almost uncomfortably-tight hug. Justin held his little sister like that for about two seconds... then lifted her off her feet, still keeping her pressed against his body, and turned around three times before letting her go, guiding her down onto his bed, which again squeaked loudly.

With his back to the rest of the family, he gave Alex a wink as he said, "I think Alex is right. I'm going to have to oil this thing." She cracked a smile, which faded quickly though, as Max jumped forward, begging to be swung around as well.


	4. Chapter 4

That night, Alex lay in her bed, waiting for everyone else to be asleep and reviewing her plan. _First, I make a duplicate of myself. Then, I take a cab to the dorm. Then I use the go-through-mo-through spell to get to Justin's room. And then I either surprise him, or I kill him if he's got another girl there. This should all work._

She looked over at the bedside table. 11:03, the LEDs showed. _Okay. They should be asleep now. Here goes._ She scooted over to the edge of the bed, said "Edgebono Utoosis," then sat up and looked at the duplicate of her that was lying there. The duplicate looked up, dumbly. _Yeah, dumbly is right. I'd forgotten how stupid the duplicates are. Well, how much brains does it take to sleep?_

"Okay, I've got a nice, simple job for you. You lie here and sleep. If anybody tries to wake you up, just keep sleeping. Got that?"

The duplicate gave a nod, then closed her eyes. _Aww. I look so cute when I'm sleeping._ Alex smiled, tucked her duplicate in (resisting a sudden urge to kiss herself on the forehead), went to the door, opened it a crack. _Lights out. Good._ She slipped out, went down the stairs, taking them very carefully, silently crossed the living room, opened the door, and went out.

Thirty minutes later, she was in Justin's dorm, smiling and humming to herself as she took the elevator up. _I can stay 'til four, I think. Tomorrow's Sunday, so I can sleep in. This is going to be so good...._

The elevator dinged for four, and she actually skipped out, still humming, did a twirl on her way to 418. Stopping in front of the door, Alex paused a moment and took out her compact, did a quick check. _All good. Here goes...._ "Go through mo through."

Alex stepped through the door and said, "Surprise!" striking a pose with one arm up and one down as she did. Then she stopped, feeling foolish as she saw Justin wasn't there. The bedside light was on, but it illuminated an empty room. Her heart sunk and her shoulders slumped. _It's midnight. Justin never stays up this late, unless he's with me. So where is he?_

The dorm had common rooms, she remembered. Maybe he'd be in one of those. _Or maybe he's visiting Beth in 521. _Alex stepped back out into the hallway, took a breath, looked up and down it. There was a lounge on the ground floor, and a balcony above that, and she remembered something about a game room, and TV rooms. _I'm going to find you, Justin, even if I have to do a room-to-room search of this place. And you had better not be with another girl when I find you._

*

Justin looked down at Alex -- or actually, Alex's duplicate, although he didn't know it -- sleeping in her bed, and smiled. _She's so beautiful like this -- all calm and peaceful. _Slowly, he knelt by the side of her bed, then crossed his arms on it and watched her, wanting to take in her beauty by the light of the blue '12:03' on her clock for a few moments before waking her up.

After a minute or so, he frowned a little. Usually she'd realize he was there by now, and wake up, give him some sarcastic remark about acting like a stalker watching her. She must really be tired, to still be sleeping. Justin reached out a hand and gently touched her on the shoulder, saying, "Hey. Wake up, sleepy."

Nothing. Frowning more deeply, Justin put his hand on her upper arm, shook again. "Come on... your favorite brother's here." The shaking moved her head, but she still didn't wake up. He pulled the blankets back then, and tried tickling her under the arm. That got movement, which was a relief -- but she still didn't wake up.

Shaking his head, Justin covered his little sister back up, tucked the blankets in around her, then leaned down and kissed her on the temple, then on the cheek. _Wow. If she's that tired, I'll let her sleep. I'll just leave a note for her, so she knows I didn't forget about her or something. And I'll stay a while, in case she wakes up._

Moving over to Alex's desk, Justin dug through the debris, found a piece of paper and a pencil, turned on the desk lamp. He turned to look at Alex after he did that. No reaction, though. She was really out, he thought as he set to writing his note.

*

Back at Justin's dorm, the real Alex was growing frantic. _How many little lounges can one building have? _So far, she'd found the main lobby area on the ground floor, the balcony of that, TV rooms on floors five, ten, and fifteen, a rooftop deck (which was locked at night, but that hadn't been an obstacle for Alex), a pool room in the basement, and, she had just discovered, small study lounges on every floor. She was checking the fourth of those, and hoping there weren't any other such lounges that she hadn't figured out the existence of.

She wasn't really feeling hopeful, but she wasn't sure what else to do -- and she desperately wanted to find Justin right now, though she was torn between hugging him hard when she did, or yelling at him for not being where he should be. _With me, that is._

Since she was on the fourth floor, she decided to go back to Justin's room. After all, he might have come back to it. This time, she trudged rather than skipped down the hall to 418. As she walked, she looked at her watch. _1:33. Longer than I thought it had been._ _Even if he's there, that doesn't give us a lot of time._

Outside his door, Alex recast the spell. She hadn't walked through anything since the roof deck door, and she didn't want to bump her nose if it had worn off. She looked both ways, and, seeing no one in the hall, stepped through into Justin's room.

The light was out, she noticed immediately, so he'd at least been there. There was a night-light on -- she smirked a little at that, automatically, but it made her feel good to see it, really. It was a sign that Justin was still the same Justin. And he was there, she saw after her eyes adjusted. There in his bed, eyes closed, chest rising and falling slowly in the rhythm of sleep.

She moved to the bedside, pulled out the desk chair and sat in it, just looking at him for a minute. His hair looked dorky, he had an insipid smile on his face, and he still slept with a night-light -- but she wouldn't trade him for anything. Alex sighed and smiled. After a moment, the smile turned to a grin, and she moved onto her knees on the floor, next to his head, then leaned over carefully, extended her tongue, and licked his ear.

Knowing what his reaction would be, she pulled back instantly, giggling, as Justin half-jumped and let out a "What the --!" He cut off there, looking at Alex, and gave her a smile, his eyes narrowing with it. "I'm gonna get you for that."

"Ooh," she cooed, stepping back. "I can hardly wait." She jumped back again as he got off the bed, but Justin brought his blanket with him, swept it around behind her and grabbed the other side, then pulled it taut, pulling Alex against him.

"Cheater," she said, smiling up at him, and reached her hands to his sides, started tickling him. Justin dropped the blanket and grabbed for Alex's arms. He got one, missed the other, and she moved it, then tried to tickle him harder, hoping to make him lose his grip.

Justin squirmed to the side with an "Ah!" and grabbed again, got her other arm. Turning, he dropped the two of them onto the bed, then grinned. "Hear that?"

"What?" Alex asked, puzzled.

"I oiled the springs for us," he said, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"Were you planning on doing something that might make them squeak?" she asked innocently, grinning as she did.

"Maybe," Justin said, then moved his arms and pulled his little sister against him and kissed her. His kiss was rough and needy, and their teeth clinked together once before he softened it a little.

Alex let her body mold against her brother, feeling him against the length of her, and sighed softly into the kiss. As her mouth opened for the sigh, Justin entered her with his tongue, kissed her slow and deeply, taking his time, stroking Alex's silky hair with one hand as he did.

Then he broke the kiss and moved, off the bed, taking Alex by the arms again and turning her onto her stomach. "I said I was going to get you for that, Alex. Are you ready to take your punishment?"

She smiled, eyes half-closed, struggled against his hold just enough to make Justin have to make an effort to hold her down. "No.... I wasn't bad. I wasn't."

Justin's answer was a smack on her butt, hard, knowing that her pants would absorb a good bit of it. Alex let out a little yelp and squirmed more, and Justin spanked her again. "Be a good girl and take your spanking, Alex."

"No... I wasn't being bad... ah!" She stopped squirming as Justin reached under and unbuckled her belt, undid her pants, then pulled them down to expose her butt. He gave her four good smacks there, then paused, letting his hand caress her there as he spoke.

"I went to you earlier, but you were so asleep I couldn't wake you up."

"What?!" Alex looked over her shoulder at him, then gasped. "Oh -- I left a duplicate in my bed while I came over to find you! You must've been trying to wake it up!"

Now it was Justin's turn to be startled. "Wait... that was a duplicate? But I --" He stopped there and began to turn pink, prompting a raised eyebrow from Alex.

"Justin, what did you do to my duplicate?" He turned more red, and Alex turned over and sat up. "You didn't have sex with it, did you?"


	5. Chapter 5

"No!" Justin immediately protested. "At least... not technically."

"Not technically?" Alex moved closer, curious now. "What did you _do_?"

"Well, you were... it was... she was...." Justin stopped, put his head in his hands, shook it slowly. "Okay. Let's call it her. Does that work?"

"Sure. What did you do to her?"

"I was watching her there," Justin started, "and she looked so beautiful. Just like you. So... I was feeling horny, but I didn't want to wake you -- _her_ up, so I...."

He paused again, and Alex picked up his pillow, hit him with it, grinning. "Tell me! I'm not going to be mad, okay? You thought it -- she was me. And she kind of is, I guess. Like a clone, if clones were really dumb."

"Okay. I..." Justin's voice dropped to just above a whisper, and he blushed again. "I jacked off onto her."

"_What?_" Alex's eyes went wide, and she covered her mouth and started laughing. "Oh my God! Justin!"

"It's not my fault you look so hot when you're asleep," he mumbled as Alex kept laughing, and his blush grew stronger.

"It's okay," she said then, moving against Justin and hugging him. "In fact, it's kind of cool, knowing I can make you that horny just lying there asleep." She moved against him, put her hand between Justin's legs, felt for him. "Mmm... do I make you horny when I'm awake too?"

"You know you do," he answered, then put a hand on Alex's cheek, turned her face to his and kissed her. He kept it a surface kiss to start with, pulling at her lips with his and touching them with the tip of his tongue. Justin's hands moved to Alex's waist, and he lay them down onto the bed again, moving slowly so he wouldn't have to break the kiss.

Once they were lying down, he let his hands roam across his little sister's body, feeling the curve of her hips, the swell of her breasts, the long graceful lines of her neck. Her hand was still on him, feeling him through his boxers, and then she moved it, sliding it inside to touch him directly.

Alex broke the kiss and grinned up at her brother. "That feels nice. But I bet it would feel better somewhere else." She moved her hands again, pulled his boxers down.

"Oh, really? You have any ideas about that?"

"No," she answered, giving him an innocent look. "No ideas at all."

"Well, I suppose I'll just have to show you where it goes." Justin stood up off the bed, pulled Alex's pants and panties the rest of the way off, cast them onto the floor. "Take off your top," he said then. "I want you naked."

She shook her head 'no', smiling at him, and he smiled back. "No?" Justin reached down, gave Alex's butt a single smack. "I think you're forgetting who's in charge here," he said, then spanked her twice more. "Now get that top off."

"Mmmm... you're so mean." There was a purr in Alex's voice as she said it, though, and she took her top off, then started to unhook her bra. As she did, Justin spanked her again.

"You're so mean, what?"

"You're so mean, sir," Alex said this time, letting her bra drop to the floor. They were both naked now, Alex lying on the bed, Justin standing over her with his erection jutting out. He placed a hand on one of Alex's breasts and squeezed it, while his other touched her between the legs, stroking up and down.

He smiled and stroked her a little more before speaking. "I think this is what I want right now." Justin moved down, getting his hips on level with Alex's, then entered her, causing her to gasp. He pushed himself in as deeply as he could, then grasped Alex's hips and lifted her up, standing straight up as he did. Without a word, he began to jackhammer down into Alex.

Alex moaned. The position was a little uncomfortable, and Justin was pushing in deeply enough and hard enough that she knew she'd be sore later, but right now, it felt oh so good... and she always loved it when Justin manhandled her, so that was an extra bonus.

After a couple of minutes of that, Justin pulled out of Alex, turned her over, lifted her hips again, and reinserted, then began to ride her hard doggy-style, reaching one hand up onto her shoulder, pulling her back against his thrusts. Alex moaned again and shivered as she came, the change in sensations pushing her over the edge. Justin could feel her contracting around him and grinned, but wasn't close enough yet himself.

He gave her a spank while still pumping in her, then another and another, and Alex came for her second time, grabbing onto the sheets and gasping. This was bigger than her first one, and she shut her eyes, riding through the waves of sensation. _God... who would have ever thought that Justin could make me come and come like this?_

They continued in that position for a few more minutes, and then Justin turned her over again, moved her so she was on the bed lengthwise, and joined her on it. He spread his sister's legs with her willing cooperation, mounted her again and began to pump, then lowered his face to hers and kissed her deeply, pushing his tongue into her mouth. He could feel himself getting close now, and he pumped faster. That drove Alex into another orgasm, and she made noises into the kiss, and clutched at him as he pounded into her with all the force and speed he could muster.

And then Justin was coming, moaning as well, his thrusts becoming jerky with it. He went on for perhaps half a dozen more thrusts, then slowed, stopped after a couple more. His kiss became more gentle, and then he broke it, started to kiss all over Alex's face. "I love you," he said, and Alex hugged him.

"I love you too. Even when you're trying to break me."

"Sorry... was I too rough there?" Justin pulled his face back to look Alex in the eyes.

"It's okay. It felt good -- I'm just going to be sore later. But I don't mind," she added quickly, touching his face now with her fingertips, smiling and looking back at him.

"Okay. Well, I hate to do this, but..." He pulled out of her, then, then moved and lay down beside her.

It was then that Alex realized something. He hadn't had a condom on. _Okay, don't panic. Your period was... _she paused, mentally counting back, then felt relieved. _Twenty-three days ago. It's probably safe._

"Are you okay?" Justin asked, seeing that Alex was thinking about something. He stroked her chest and belly gently, kissed her on the shoulder.

"Yeah. I love you," she said again, and turned on her side, hugged him. Justin returned the hug, squeezing her a bit, but trying not to squeeze too hard, kissed her again on the mouth. He pulled back to look at her again, then, brushed hair that was falling into her face to the side. "I love you too. I could just look at you all night, you're so beautiful."

She smiled at that, ran her hand across his arm a few times. "You say the sweetest things." She kissed him, this time, and then looked past him at the clock. 2:01. "I was going to head back in about two hours. Do you want to sleep, or are you ready for round two. Or is that three, for you? Oh, hey -- we could get my duplicate and have a threesome," she teased, smiling. "Do you like that idea?"

"I'm not sure I could handle two of you," Justin chuckled. "But I'll keep the idea in mind."

"Oh, I'm sure you will. Perv."

"Perv? You're the one who suggested it." Justin smiled, kissed Alex on the tip of her nose, quickly. "I think you're the real perv around here. I just do what I need to to make you happy."

Alex snuggled in against Justin more and grinned. "Mmmm... you always make me happy, Justin. You always have."

"Good." He kissed her again, on the cheek this time, wrapped his arms around her and held her firmly, feeling the rise and fall of her breathing against him.


	6. Chapter 6

Justin awoke first, to the soft, warm feeling of Alex curled up against him. She was snuggled into his chest, one arm over his waist, one leg on top of his, facing him. He smiled at that -- it was funny how she could sleep like that. And that he could sleep like that as well. The analytical part of his mind wondered if she half climbed onto him because she felt such a strong need for him, while the rest of him just enjoyed it.

A small sigh escaped him at that thought. _She's always so insecure. I wish I had some way to prove to her that I'm not going anywhere. It's not like there's another girl that I could feel this way about._ A lump came to his throat, then, and he shifted a little to hold her more securely.

He bent his head down to kiss the shiny mass of black curls atop her head, then lifted it to look at the clock, which shone 5:21. "Oh, hell --" Justin started, beginning to sit up, and then he remembered that it was Sunday and relaxed. The Sub Station was closed on Sunday, so Mom and Dad would probably sleep in, not be getting up to try their new experiment of serving breakfast. Still, he should get Alex back home -- sometimes Mom or Dad would wake up early.

Moving down a little, he tilted Alex's face up and looked at her. _She looks like an angel. _Not the kind they liked in movies, of course -- trust Hollywood to think all angels should be blonde and blue-eyed -- but she was achingly beautiful, and, in sleep, looked perfectly innocent. He kissed her temple, then her cheek, and Alex smiled slightly in her sleep, turned a little.

He stroked her hair then, admiring it, and wondered if she was dreaming, and, if so, what those dreams were. She'd had a book she'd made, he remembered, with her as a princess and Dean as a knight, and he wondered if she ever thought of him that way... and how she'd look, dressed up as a princess. _Beautiful, of course. Like she always is. I've always thought she was beautiful. Even when we were little kids._

Justin smiled, remembering when he'd gone into eighth grade, and Alex into sixth. That had put them in the same school, for the first time since third and fifth grades... and _everyone_ at the school had noticed Alex. He'd gotten in three fights that year, with guys who'd made comments about her. His parents didn't know, and he didn't think Alex did either -- he hadn't been caught by the teachers, any of those times. Two of the three fights had ended quickly, breaking up when it looked like they might be noticed. The third had gone on until the other guy had cried uncle, and none of the three had kept talking about Alex. At least, not anywhere that Justin could hear.

The next thing he remembered, he was waking up again. _Oh, hell, I did _not_ mean to fall back asleep._ Alex was still there, still curled into him. And the clock? It was blinking 6:43. _Okay, we're getting on the risky side here._ Gently, he rocked Alex's shoulder, then kissed her on the temple. "Hey. Time to wake up and get back home."

She opened her eyes and blinked them blearily, then smiled, looking at him. "Mmm... do I have to? I just want to lay here with you all day long."

Justin smiled and kissed her lightly, then shook his head. "Sorry. If you don't wake up all day long, I think mom and dad will get suspicious."

"Yeah." Alex sighed, then rolled her eyes. "You know, you've left me to put up with mom, dad, and Max all day. I should be mad at you just for that."

Softly stroking Alex's cheek, Justin answered. "Yeah, you probably should. Maybe Max will start to grow up some, though."

"Yeah. And maybe Harper will quit wearing fruit-themed clothes. Oh, wait!" Alex snapped her fingers. "That's right! She moved on to fish, didn't she? Yeah... that's such an improvement. Maybe Max will improve like that." She blinked innocently, then giggled.

"Oh, I'm sure Max will grow out of it. He'll start to notice girls, and then...." Justin stopped and scrunched one eyebrow, considering. "No. That won't be an improvement. I hate to say it, but I think you might be right."

"Oh, you think?" Alex grinned and suddenly reached to tickle Justin at the base of his ribs, knowing that would get a reaction out of him. It did, but not quite the expected one, as he tried to pull his arm in to block her, but since it was supporting him, half-fell onto her, his face landing on her upper chest.

"Hey, now is not the time for that," she said once she got her breath back. "Can't you stop for ten minutes?"

"Ten minutes?" Justin pointed to the clock. "It's been way more than ten minutes."

"Yeah, but you've only been awake for ten minutes. And if you could do it to me in your sleep, you would."

"Well... yeah." Justin grinned, moved his face up, and kissed Alex softly, then looked her in the eyes. "What can I say? I love my little sister and want to be as close as I can to her."

"Yeah, like inside me," Alex replied with a smile. "Perv."

"Yes, I'm a perv. And you love it." Justin kissed her again, let it linger a second this time. "And I love you."

Alex wrapped her arms around Justin and squeezed, feeling happy. "I love you too." She held on like that for a moment before letting go. "Okay, now... let me up so I can get some clothes on, okay?"

"Okay." He did so, then lay on his side for a moment and looked at her, smiling. Alex started to put her clothes on, saw Justin watching, then blushed and threw a sock at his face. "Stop looking!"

"All right...." Her brother got up off the bed as well, went to his closet, picked out clothes and started to put them on. A few moments later, they were both dressed, and he stepped back to Alex, smiled at her. "You are so beautiful."

"I know," she answered, smiling. "But it's sweet of you to say it."

"Okay, now... stand on my feet."

"What?" Alex tilted her head, not moving. "Is this some new perv thing you've come up with? Because, you know, I know all the old ones, and I haven't heard of any that start like that."

"No. Humor me, okay?" Justin reached and took Alex's hands, helped her steady herself as she stepped onto his feet.

"It's a good thing for you I don't wear heels, or you'd be hurting right now."

"Yeah, well... _Me transmitte sursum, Caledoni!_"

"What...." Alex stopped, looking around. They were in her room now. "You --" she started, then stopped, lowered her voice. "You teleported us! Into my room! When did you learn to do that?"

"Dad showed me the spell yesterday. It's really pretty interesting. Each wizard home is shielded from normal teleports, and you need the right keyed spell to be able to teleport in. Of course, there's a 'landing area' for guests, like we've got the room off the lair. Making a hole in the shield like that is --"

"Some really long and boring thing," Alex interrupted. "But the teleporting in part -- that could be fun. Why don't you show me that part?"

Justin got his 'cagey' look, and Alex knew what he was going to say 'no' before he even said it -- so she didn't let him say it.

"I love you," she said instead, and went up on tiptoe to kiss him on the cheek. "Thank you _so_ much for showing me this. It really means a lot." As expected, that flustered him.

"Umm, ahh, but...." Justin stammered. Alex just watched him for a moment, smiling at him innocently while feeling happy that she could still twist him around her little finger. _And I've got so many new ways to do it, too...._ She went on tiptoe again, kissed him on the mouth this time, opening her mouth slightly to invite his tongue in.

A few moments later, she broke the kiss. "You should show me quick, so you can get going. We don't want mom and dad to find us like this, do we?" She turned then, remembering her duplicate on the bed. "Oh, and we don't need her right now." She picked up her wand, pointed with it, and the duplicate disappeared. "So," she continued, turning back to Justin, "you were about to show me the teleport spell?"

With a look somewhere between confused and suspicious, Justin reached and scratched his chin. "Wait a --"

Just then, a noise came from outside the door. Alex half-jumped into her bed, muttering quickly, "This is not the time for these clothes, put in pajamas like I snoze." _Snoze? Ah, well, it worked,_ she thought, as he clothes turned into pajamas. The light was already off, and Justin was gone. _He must've teleported out. I have _got_ to learn that spell!_

The door opened about halfway, and her mother leaned in, looking puzzled. "Alex, honey? Are you okay? I thought I heard a noise."

"Sorry -- just had a bad dream." She sat up, looked at her mom, yawned. "I haven't been sleeping well tonight."

Her mother smiled, stepped into the room, closed the door gently behind her, came and sat on the edge of the bed and put a hand on Alex's thigh. "Oh, baby. You miss your big brother already?" Without waiting for an answer, Theresa reached and hugged Alex, pulling her daughter's head against her shoulder. "It's okay. You're family. A piece of him is always with you."

Alex had to fight the sudden urge to giggle hysterically at that. She managed to turn it into a swallow and nod, but it was a couple of seconds before she trusted herself to open her mouth without laughing. "I know. He's just... always been here my whole life. It feels like he'll forget about me, not being around here."

"It's okay. You're going to see him three days a week, at the Sub Station. And he only lives twenty minutes away. If you want to go visit him some times, that's fine."

"Okay," Alex said a little more brightly, and gave her mom a genuine smile. "I'd like that."

"Of course you would. You're a good sister." Her mom gave her another squeeze, then got up off the bed. "Now go to sleep. You need your rest more than you think you do, at your age."

Theresa left, closing the door gently behind her, and Alex lay back down, pulled one pillow where she could hug it. _Yeah. And if you knew how I'm being good to Justin, you'd disown both of us._


	7. Chapter 7

Sunday dragged. Alex didn't get up until noon, but it was still too early. She had cereal for breakfast, and made herself some of the tea that Justin liked. It wasn't her favorite, but the smell reminded her of him.

That was nice, but Max started singing some song about exploding frogs, which made Alex wish she could make _him _explode after about five minutes. She didn't want to go back to her room, though, so she stuck it out, and an exasperated Mom finally told him to stop.

A couple of hours later, she thought about going to Harper's, but Harper would want to know about Justin's new dorm room, and would try to wheedle the address out of Alex. _On the other hand, she might have some ideas about how to keep other girls away from Justin. She'd definitely be willing to help with that. And it'll get me away from Max for a bit. _Alex smiled a bit, then called out, "Hey... I'm going over to Harper's."

"Okay, honey -- be back by dinner!"

"I will!" she called back, grabbing her jacket.

*

"So... Justin's in a building with hundreds of girls? Cute, perky, smart college girls?" Today, Harper was wearing a pale green outfit, which Alex thought was supposed to be some kind of cantaloupe. _The color looks good on her, at least._

"Yeah. He's talked to a couple of them already. One of them's organizing a study group, and wants him to be in it."

"Oh, I'll bet! She just wants to study _him!_" She looked about as angry as Alex felt at the thought, and Alex smiled a little. _At least we've got a common goal here. That feels good._

To tell the truth, Alex had been feeling uncomfortable around Harper ever since she'd first discovered that she'd fallen in love with Justin. She'd been hoping that with him gone to college and not around Harper every day, she'd find someone else to fixate on. _And here I am, stoking the fires up here. Well... no help for that. She's the only one I can get sympathy from about this, even if she doesn't know she's giving it._

"What are we going to do about this, Alex? Do you have some kind of spell that would help? Is there an... anti-love spell?"

"Ummm...." Alex frowned, thinking. She'd made a love potion before, and dealt with Cupid, but she hadn't looked at _stopping_ love. "I don't know -- I'll have to dig out the book of spells in the lair and look."

Harper nodded, smiling. "Good. We just have to cast that on every girl in Justin's dorm."

"I think that might be... kind of overkill." Harper opened her mouth to protest and Alex quickly went on, "I mean, I think just ones that are talking to him should be enough, don't you think? It'd probably take a lot of time to do it to _every_ girl in the dorm. If there even is such a spell."

With a sigh and a pout, Harper folded her arms. "Well... you're the wizard. But if any of them try to take up with my Justin-bear, they'll find out what happens when you get between a tigress and her mate!"

_Oh my god, I _did_ get 'Justin-bear' from Harper! Ah, well... it _is_ kind of cute...._

*

_Let's see... love spells, love spells, love spells... oh, _there _you are. Boy I'm glad this thing has an index. Counter-charms, cross-species.... _Cross-species? _Ew! Cupid and, detecting, potions, removal -- that might be it. Page 324. Okay._

She flipped through the book, glanced toward the door. _Hope Dad doesn't come in here for anything. Okay, here we are...._ She glanced through the text quickly, skipping the usual introductory junk, skimming through the "warnings and cautions" section, then smiling as she found the actual spells. _Mm-hm. Looks simple enough._ She smiled a little as she ran through the spell in her head twice, making sure she had the gesture down as well as the words.

_Okay. _Now _let's see any of those co-ed carnivores come after my Justin._

*

Alex went to bed at ten, thinking maybe she'd be able to get some sleep before Justin teleported in. Scooting herself over to the middle, she felt something that shouldn't be there. She dug for it, found it, pulled it out. _Paper? What's a piece of paper doing here? _Quickly, she unfolded the little square, then smoothed it out on the side of the bed closer to her lamp.

_Alex,_ it started in Justin's handwriting, _I tried to wake you up, but you must be really tired. Sorry -- I guess I've been keeping you up too much lately. _

_I probably shouldn't be writing this down,_ it went on,_ but I really wanted to see you tonight. Well, I am seeing you right now, but you know what I mean._ The writing continued right after that, but the next few letters looked like they'd been written more quickly, and Alex smiled, imagining the pause that Justin would have made before he wrote them down here, where they might be found. _I love you. I can't believe I just wrote that down, but I do. I know you're worried, but you shouldn't be. There's not a girl here who could hold a candle to you. _

_Well, I've written this much, so I might as well go on. I love your laugh. I love your smile. I love your eyes, and your nose, your chin and your lips. I love how warm you feel when I hold you. I even love how you look when you do your puppy eyes. It makes me want to hold you and fix whatever's wrong._

_And I will. Whatever's wrong for you, I will always fix it, because I love you._

_Justin_

_P.S. I don't think I need to tell you this, but destroy this after reading._

_P.P.S. I'll be back Monday night -- I need to get some real sleep before classes on Monday. I'll miss you._

Alex sighed and clutched the letter to her chest, feeling a lump in her throat again. _I miss you too. And I love you._


	8. Chapter 8

It hardly seemed possible, but Monday was worse than Sunday had been. There was school to distract Alex, to be sure, but Justin was having his first day of school too, she knew, and she kept wondering what he was doing -- and who he was meeting. The two years until she'd be at college too seemed like a long, long time, and it felt like way too much could happen in that time.

_Yeah... like yet another girl trying to grab onto Justin. _Alex frowned, completely ignoring the World History teacher's lecture as she thought. Weird girls seemed to crawl out of the woodwork to go after him -- the centaur girl, the werewolf, that one he'd brought to their family game night last year. She used to pretend she didn't understand why, but she knew why.

_He's cute. Really cute, especially when he's looking confused. And hot. _She smiled, thinking about how Justin looked under his clothes. Not hugely muscular, but fit and trim. And he was just the right height, tall enough that she had to stretch up a bit to kiss, him, but not so tall that she couldn't reach him up there. She sighed again, then blinked a couple of times. _Okay, Alex. Focus. What were you thinking about?_

_Oh, right. Girls after Justin. _Well, she had a plan for that. She'd make sure the girls in the dorm knew Justin was taken. If any of them seemed to be trying to attach themselves to him, she'd use the anti-love spell. She smiled again, resting her chin on her hand. It was foolproof. _Now I just need to put the plan into action._

*

"Hello?"

"Hi," Alex said into the phone, laying on her bed and twirling a lock of her hair around one finger.

Justin frowned. _What's Alex calling for? _"Hey. Is something wrong?" He stepped off the sidewalk onto the green, watched as other students went back and forth. It wasn't quite three o'clock, and while Alex was already out of school for the day, he was on his way to one.

"No... I just wanted to hear your voice." She paused half a second, then went on, "And to tell you I love you."

"I love you too," Justin answered, and Alex smiled at the tones in his voice. "I've got class in five minutes, so I can't talk long. I'm still going to get you tonight, though."

"About that... could you get me earlier? Like, eleven?" She heard the start of a negative noise coming, so she hurriedly continued. "It'll be okay. Mom and Dad have been going to bed earlier, since they're doing that breakfast thing at the shop. And I can leave a duplicate here again, in case they check on me."

Justin didn't answer for a moment, thinking. _Alex doing magic when she's not supposed to, and it's my fault. _"I can make the duplicate," he said then. "That way you won't be breaking the rule." He carefully didn't say 'the rules', knowing full well that Alex and he were breaking all kinds of rules already. Justin was nothing if not accurate in his speech.

"Okay. And you'll get me at eleven?"

"Sure. I'll see you then. I've gotta go now. I love you," he said again, with an automatic glance around first, even though he knew none of the rest of the family were anywhere in earshot. He blew a kiss into the phone, and on the other end, Alex giggled, then blew one back.

"I love you too. Bye!" She hung the phone up, then turned onto her back and stretched, looking up at that ceiling. _Okay. Time to go downstairs and work for a while. And I'll even help clean up after, so when I go to bed early, nobody will suspect anything._

*

At 10:50, Alex was busy. She'd tried on three different outfits, all by the light of a nightlight borrowed from Justin's room -- so no one would see light coming from under her door when she was supposed to be sleeping. Before that, she'd gone through her underwear, lamenting the lack of anything really sexy. Maybe she'd get some now, and keep it at Justin's. There was a laundry room in the basement there, and nobody would think it odd for them to do laundry together. Not that she had any idea _when_ they'd be able to do that, but if Mom found the kind of things she was thinking of in the laundry, there'd be questions and comments. Especially with her on the whole 'my babies' kick from Justin leaving.

In the end, she'd settled on the same blue-and-white panties and lacy white bra she'd worn for their first real night together; Justin had said he liked them, and they'd at least have that reminder. She glanced at the clock, saw it saying 10:52. _Okay. Time to close things up here._ Justin usually tried to be early for things, and she was sure he'd be early for this. So she put the extra outfits back up quickly, closed the closet and the drawers, and waited.

And then he was there. A puff of smoke went up, and Justin quickly fanned it, spreading it around. "It's okay. I took the batteries out of the smoke alarm."

"What?" Justin looked at her. "Alex, that's not safe, and --"

"And I'll put them back in later." She rolled her eyes, then stepped over to Justin and hugged him. "Mmm... two days is too long without seeing you."

Justin kissed the top of his sister's head, smiled for a moment, then glanced at the door. "Same here," he said. "But let's get going, okay?" He took a step back from her, pulled out his wand, and did the duplication spell. "Edgebono utoosis."

Alex's duplicate looked around, dumbly. "Okay," Alex said, "you get into bed and go to sleep." She looked at Justin, cocked her head to the side, then grinned. "Unless you need her for something else first?"

"No. I think I'm happy with the real you, thanks." His tone was dry, and the look he gave Alex was annoyed, but he put an arm around her and kissed her temple, and she snuggled against him like that for a second.

"Well, you get in bed, then," she said to the duplicate, then watched as it did. "So, I need to stand on your feet again?"

Justin shook his head. "I think I can do it with us just holding hands now. I've practiced a few times." He took her hand, said the spell, and they were in his dorm room. Immediately, Alex tackle-hugged her brother, taking him down onto the bed.

"Sorry," she said then. "I couldn't do that back there, though. And I really missed you."

"I missed you too," Justin said, then kissed Alex, rolling them onto their sides on the bed. With one arm around her, he held the back of her head with his other hand and gave a series of little kisses, alternating between her upper and lower lips. His hand slid inside her top, onto the smooth skin of Alex's waist, then started to creep higher.

Alex broke the kiss then, moved her hand to his forearm, stopping his upward progression. Justin frowned at that, opened his mouth to ask a question, but Alex spoke first. "Can we do that later? I'd like to go out in public with you. You know -- like a real boyfriend and girlfriend."

"We are a real boyfriend and girlfriend."

She rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean. We've had to keep everything secret -- but the people here don't know I'm your sister. We can go out. We can watch TV and cuddle. We can kiss in front of them." Justin still looked dubious about it, and Alex snuggled into him closer, then did her sad-puppy face.


	9. Chapter 9

They went up to the fifth floor TV lounge -- ostensibly because it was closest, but for Alex, the fact that it was where those Gina and Beth girls who had been talking to Justin were was a major driving force. Neither of them was there, but even at this late hour, there were a dozen or so students in the room.

There were four large couches, each capable of seating four people, and three tables -- a large one that could seat eight, and two smaller ones for four. The tables had a few students who were studying while watching, but most of them were on the couches. Alex led Justin over to the couch on the left, which had only one guy on it, taking an end space. "Here," she said, "you sit at the end here..." Justin did so, and then Alex sat down on his lap, tilted her head back and smiled at him. "And I'll sit right here."

Nobody seemed to take any notice, and Alex frowned a little at that. _Well, I guess I'm going to have to step it up a little._ She arched in Justin's lap, put a hand the back of his head, and pulled him down into a kiss. He tried to pull back a little, but she held on firmly, and after a second Justin returned the kiss, putting his hands on Alex's sides to help support her. It felt different, but good, with their mouths reversed from each other. Alex started to grow dizzy, but she wasn't sure whether it was from the kiss, or holding her head upside-down.

When they broke the kiss, Alex glanced around. She was gratified to see a few people look away quickly. She smiled and settled back against Justin, wiggling a little to adjust herself. His arms went around her middle, and Alex turned her head a little, stroked the back of his head, stage-whispered "I love you."

"I love you too," Justin said, a fair bit more quietly than Alex. He kissed her cheek, then whispered as his head moved back. "What are you doing?"

She turned her head to kiss his cheek in return, whispered "Nothing. Just relax and enjoy."

Justin gave Alex a doubtful glance, but with him behind her, she couldn't see it. Instead, she turned her attention to the TV -- some crime drama was on, she wasn't sure which one yet -- and squirmed a little again, settling more comfortably into her brother.

For his part, Justin was feeling like squirming as well, but for a different reason. His little sister's cute, tight, oh-so-spankable little butt was wiggling against him, and he had the natural reaction of any eighteen-year-old male in such a position. Alex could still be surprisingly naïve about her affect on him at times, and while he knew she wouldn't mind, she might be startled when she noticed it, and he really didn't want to draw any more attention to them.

Glancing around without moving his head, Justin saw that they were being watched by at least two people. One guy was watching Alex -- well, that was natural, she was so damn cute it wasn't even funny -- and a girl was watching as well. _Oh heck,_ he thought, realizing that it was Beth, looking up from her book and papers and looking a little flushed. _Great. And that's just in the half of the room I can see._

Of course, that's when Alex noticed what was under her. "Oh!" she said, then wiggled a little again, turned her head to look at Justin. "What's that... _oh._" There was a giggle from elsewhere in the room, and the sound of someone else trying to quietly shush the giggler. Alex turned her head to whisper into Justin's ear again. "Justin... what are you doing?"

"I'm having a natural reaction to my incredibly sexy little si... girlfriend," he whispered back. "Didn't you think about what was going to happen if you sat in my lap?"

"That's you? It feels like a baseball bat under me." The guy at the other end of the couch raised his eyebrows and looked at them, and Alex blushed, realizing that she'd spoken a little more loudly than she'd intended.

"Why, yes, I have a baseball bat in my pants," Justin whispered, trying to keep his voice as low as possible, glancing around. Half the room seemed to be looking at them now, though maybe that was his imagination. He hoped it was.

"Okay, you don't have to be sarcastic. I'll move." She started to move off to the side, but Justin kept his arms around her waist. Alex tried to lift herself off of him again, and Justin whispered, "You want the whole room to see that I'm hard?"

Somewhere behind them, someone whispered again, loudly enough for Alex to hear. "_Oh my God, are they humping on the couch?_" Her blush turned crimson and she froze, not moving at all. After about five seconds, she whispered to Justin, "Uhh... maybe we should go back to your room and, uhh... take care of things?"

Justin closed his eyes for half a moment, then whispered "No -- let's just stay here. Just... try not to move any. Okay?"

"Okay." Alex sat still, then, and after a moment, Justin sighed.

"Not like that. You're all tense. Just relax a bit." He breathed in and out, then said, "Lean forward."

"Why?"

"Just lean forward. Please." With the 'please', she did lean forward, and then Justin put his hands on her shoulders, started to knead them slowly. He moved his hands in to her neck massaged it for a few moments, then back out, across her shoulders.

It felt good, and Alex let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, sighing with it. She smiled and closed her eyes as Justin's hands moved down, massaged her shoulder blades in circles, then took hold of one shoulder with his left hand, put the other hand over her spin and rubbed it in slow circles, moving down an inch or so at a time until he was at the small of her back.

Alex had relaxed now, and Justin relaxed too, no longer paying attention to the people around them. Those people, however, were still watching -- at least two of them were, the boy at the other end of the couch, who was watching Alex out of the corner of his eye, and Beth, who was now chewing on the end of her pencil and watching them, squirming a bit herself now as she did.

On impulse, Justin leaned forward and kissed the side of his sister's neck, pulling her hair to the side to do so. He kisses her a few times there, opening his lips and sucking lightly, then leans back again and returns to his backrub.

A sound came from the side, drawing both of their attention, and Alex and Justin both looked. Beth had gotten up and closed her book, seeming to be in a hurry. Alex smiled a little, recognizing her. _Yeah. He's hot and sweet, and he's all mine. And don't you forget it._ Beth looked at them, obviously trying not to look like she was, and immediately blushed and swallowed when she saw them looking.

"Bye," Alex said, giving her a little wave and a smile, feeling like rubbing it in. There was no reply for Beth as she grabbed her books and papers and left.


	10. Chapter 10

Tuesday, Justin worked noon to closing at the Sub Station. It was the first time that he and Alex had officially seen each other since Saturday, and, well...

_This is awkwierd. _Alex slid by Justin, trying very very hard not to touch him as they squeezed between the tables. He shot her a quick smile, and she smiled back, then wondered if she were smiling too much, or the wrong way, or.... _Get a grip. No one is watching. _She looked around anyway, though, was relieved to find out she was right. Dad was busy in the kitchen, Mom was taking another order out to someone, Max was behind the counter, making some kind of incredibly disgusting sandwich involving chocolate syrup, mashed potatoes, and Alex didn't want to know what else.

And Justin... Justin was helping out in the kitchen and serving. As for Alex herself, she wasn't on -- but she was down here anyways, supposedly working on her homework, actually trying to stay close to Justin without anyone noticing.

That was the problem. There wasn't just their family to worry about here -- the Sub Station had regulars, some of them regular enough to know Mom and Dad on a first-name basis. So Alex couldn't flirt with Justin when none of the family was looking -- there was always _someone_ who could see. Sighing, she wished they were back at the TV room; they'd spent a good two hours there last night before returning to Justin's room, and it had been wonderful, being able to sit in his lap, to lean against him, to hold onto his arm and kiss his cheek. Going back to this, to watching him and wishing she could touch was... well, it was torture.

She tried to turn her attention to her homework, but it just wasn't working -- Alex was easily distracted even at the best of times, and this definitely wasn't that. And the t-shirt Justin was wearing wasn't helping -- it had gotten tight over the summer as he had another growth spurt, and showed off his nicely-muscled shoulders a little too well. _Thank God that Harper had that thing with her Mom, though. I don't think I could take watching her fawn over Justin right now. And...._

Alex's train derailed right there. She'd turned her head automatically as the door opened, then frozen in place at who'd just walked in. _What is _she_ doing here? _She stared at Gina for a moment -- and, of course, Gina chose just that moment to look where Alex was sitting. She waved cheerily, then came over. "Hi... Alex, isn't it? How are you?"

"Fiiiiine," Alex answered, drawing it out as she looked Gina over. The older girl was still keeping up her hippie look, though today she was in a beaded vest and bell-bottom jeans with hand-painted flowers on them. It was actually kind of cute. _It'd look better on me, though._ "How're you?"

"Great!" Gina sat down, without an invitation. "This is my first time in the city, and I'm really loving it. There's just... so much, you know?"

"Oh, that's nice." Alex glanced over toward where Justin was, saw that he hadn't seen Gina there yet -- he was busy taking an order across the room. Mom was nowhere to be seen. _She must be back in the kitchen right now._ "Where are you from?" she asked then, stalling for time as she thought quickly.

_Scenario 1: Mom comes out, sees Gina sitting here, comes over. "Oh, Alex, who's your new friend?" "Hi, I'm Gina. I go to school with Alex and her boyfriend, Justin." "BOYFRIEND!?" Result: I spend the next twenty years in a nunnery. _

_Scenario 2: Justin comes over, sees Gina sitting here, says hi. She gets a good look at him in that t-shirt, goes a-swoon-a over cute fit geek, decides she must have him or die. Result: She can't have him, so I have to kill her. I spend the rest of my life in jail._

_Scenario 3: Dad comes out, sees Gina, comes over, asks who my new friend is. "Hi, I'm Gina, I go to school with Alex and her boyfriend, Justin." "Ah! Mra! Gaah! ALEX!" Result: I fake my death, Justin finds me, thinks I'm really dead, takes poison and dies, I wake up to find him dead and stab myself. Wait, no -- that's Romeo and Juliet. Dad kills Justin, goes to jail, I pine away. Yeah. That's more like it._

"Hello? Alex? Are you listening?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah... you're from... California?"

"No, Albuquerque. You haven't been listening to a word I've been saying. Is something wrong?" Gina tilted her head a little to the side and frowned.

"Wrong? No, nothing's -- yes. Yes! You see..." She stopped, scooted her chair closer, dropped her voice. "You see, this sandwich shop belongs to my parents. Justin works here, and they don't know we're dating. So you can't mention anything about it to them. Okay?"

"Wow... you have to keep it a secret? Don't they like him?" Gina asked, speaking low as well.

"Oh, they like him okay, but... you see, I'm not really in college either. I'm still a junior in high school, and they don't want me dating a college guy. They're kind of strict that way. Plus, with him working for them, it gets complicated, you know?"

"Oh... I see." Gina nodded at that, then smiled and put her hand on Alex's. "It's okay. I won't tell."

Alex smiled back, feeling a momentary kinship with the other girl. _If it wasn't for the whole you-can't-have-my-Justin thing, maybe we could be friends. _"Thanks," she said aloud. "It means a lo -- oh, here comes my mom."

"Oh, Alex, who's your new friend?" _Boy, can I call it, or what? Right down to the way she said it._

"Hi, I'm Gina. It's nice to meet you...."

"Theresa. And it's nice to meet you too. Do you go to school with Alex?"

"Oh, no -- I'm at the college with Justin. But he's busy right now" -- she waved over in his direction, where he was bringing out food to a couple -- "so I'm talking to Alex right now."

"Oh, I see. Well, that's nice. I'd love to talk more, but we're kind of busy right now, you can see." And indeed they were -- more than half the tables had people at them. "You two have fun." Then she was off.

_Whew. Bullet dodged there._ "Thanks," Alex said aloud to Gina.

"Don't mention it," the other girl replied with an offhand gesture. "It's kind of cool -- a whole forbidden love thing."

"Yeah. Yeah." Alex smiled, thinking, _Oh yeah. If you only knew the half of it._

* * *

Sorry for the delay getting this one up -- this week's been crazy here, and the next two probably will be as well. I'm no abandoning the story, though -- just won't be able to keep up my usual pace for the next couple of weeks. Thanks for bearing with me!


	11. Chapter 11

Taking the elevator up, Alex felt excited and eager. It was Saturday, and she'd taken the subway over to go 'visit' Justin for the day. Mom and dad knew she was coming over -- Theresa thought it was cute, how Alex was missing her big brother.

_We can spend the whole day together, and no one's going to suspect anything. _She was smiling brightly, thinking about it. _Everyone will just think we're a normal couple, out for the day together._ She looked herself up and down quickly, making sure nothing was out of place. Alex wore a blue layered skirt, a ribbed white top that was a couple of years old and was now too tight on her, and over that a looser tank top, in a lighter blue than the skirt. She wore blue boots, and had worked a blue-and-white printed scarf into her hair to call attention to it, but no hat, knowing that Justin loved her hair.

The elevator dinged and she quickly stopped her check. _Never let them see you worry about your outfit. It's all just natural._ The door opened, and, seeing no one in the hallway, Alex walked quickly down to it, knocked on Justin's door with a little tappita-tappita.

A moment later, the door opened, and she smiled up at Justin, stepped forward to hug and kiss him, right there in the hall. She went up on tiptoe, leaning her head back, and opened her mouth just slightly to accept his tongue. Justin's tongue barely probed at Alex's mouth, and she met it with her own, tasted and played with him. His hand was on her waist, pressing her against him, and she arched slightly, pushing her breasts against his chest.

They broke the kiss, and Alex said, "You know, I could have been here a lot faster if you'd teach --" Just cleared his throat and threw a glance back into his room. Alex followed it, saw Beth sitting there and smoothly continued, " -- me to drive."

"_What's she doing here?" _Alex whispered then.

"_She wanted some math help."_ And indeed, there were books open on the desk, and papers and pencils out.

"I'll go on and leave you two alone," Beth said, standing and starting to gather her things, closing her book and beginning to transfer things to her backpack. "Thanks for the help, Justin." She gave him a quick smile. Alex glanced her up and down, taking in the blonde girl's look. Hair, carefully brushed. Top, a little tight, with short sleeves to show extra skin. Shorts, likewise. Low-hanging necklace, to draw attention to her chest. This, Alex thought, was not a casual studying outfit.

"You're welcome," Justin answered, and Beth's smile seemed to grow wider to Alex. _I can see I'm going to have to take some stronger measures here._

Two minutes later, the door shut behind Beth, and Alex turned a pout on Justin. "I don't like her. I think she's after you."

"What? Alex... nothing happened. We worked a few trigonometry problems. I explained what cosine and sine are." He reached a hand to Alex's hair, stroked across it, brought it down to her chin and tilted her face up, looked down into her eyes. "Even if she is, nothing's going to happen. I love you."

He bent his head down and kissed her quickly. "And may I say, you look even more beautiful than usual today."

"Yes I do," she answered to that. "And you'd better appreciate it. I don't go to this kind of trouble for just anyone, you know."

Smiling, Justin stroked her hair again. "Thank you for doing it for me. I love you." He brought his hands down, took both of hers, started to pull her toward the bed. "Now come here... we need to get something out of the way, so I won't be drooling over you the whole day in that outfit."

"Maybe I want you to drool." Alex gave him a coquettish look, resisted his pulling. "Maybe I want you to think about what you're going to get later all day long, so you'll want it really, really bad when we come back."

Stepping forward, Justin put an arm around his little sister and half-lifted her. She squealed at that and fought him a little, but not hard enough to actually stop him. He set her on her feet by the bed, then stepped back.

"I'm not waiting. Remember rule number two?"

"Umm...." Alex put a finger up to her lips and gave her brother an innocent look. "You're in... cognito?"

Reaching around, Justin lifted her skirt, then gave Alex a sharp smack on her butt, hard enough to sting a little. "No. Try again."

"You're in... satiable?"

Another smack. "No. Last word starts with a 'c'."

"You're in... Charleston?" Alex giggled that time, then gasped as Justin's smack came harder this time.

"No. Try again," he said, grinning at the game. He gave Alex's butt cheek a squeeze as he waited.

"You're in... charge."

"That's right." He kneaded the cheek a little more, then stepped back. "Now, take off that cute little outfit, so we don't ruin it."

"Yes, sir," she said, casting her eyes down and using a subdued tone, but smiling. She sat down and removed her boots first, then stretched out her legs, stood up and did a pirouette, letting it lift her skirt a bit. Justin still stood back, watching and smiling. Next, she removed her tank top, leaving the tighter ribbed white top on under it. Her darker bra was barely visible through it, and it clung nicely to her chest and belly.

Lowering her head, Alex watched Justin through her eyelashes as she reached down to touch the zipper of her skirt. Smiling, she took hold of the pull -- then let it go and reached back up, pulled her hair back and slowly undid the knot tying the scarf into her hair. She took her time loosening it, then slipped it out of her hair, dropped it onto the desk.

Justin watched as Alex brought her hand back to the zipper, teasingly moved it up and down, advancing it down a bit more each time, until it reached the bottom. She slid her thumb around, pushing the waistband down to the crest of her hips, then let it drop to the floor.

"Are those new?" Justin asked then, looking at the dark red panties revealed. Alex nodded with a bit of a blush, and Justin grinned. "Does Mom know you have panties like that?"

"No -- and that's not the kind of thing you should ask me while I'm stripping for you."

"Mmmm...." Justin stepped forward, reached around, ran his hand over Alex's panty-clad butt, feeling the texture of the lace. "Well, I like it. I like it a lot." He squatted down, putting his face on level with Alex's panties, loooked as he ran his hand over them again. "Or maybe I just like what's inside." He moved his hand between Alex's legs, felt her through the panties, brought his face forward and kissed her on the hip. Then he moved up, keeping his hand there, tugged her top up to expose her belly.

"Hey -- I thought I was supposed to be the one stripping me...."

"Rule two," Justin answered, then kissed his little sister's belly, kissed it again, moved a little and tongued her belly button, prompting a little squeal from her.

"That tickled!" Alex squirmed, smiling, and put a hand on the desk to steady herself. He pushed a hand under her top, cupped her breast, and licked her navel again, rubbing her through her panties as he did.

"And how does that feel?" Not waiting for an answer, Justin stood up and took Alex in his arms, placing his mouth on hers and kissing her hard. She responded enthusiastically, wrapping her arms around him in return and pressing herself against him.

Partway through, he moved his hand down between her legs again, stroked her slowly, then slipped his hand around behind her thighs and lifted Alex off her feet, still kissing her. She squealed again into the kiss, surprised, held onto Justin more tightly as he lowered her onto the bed.

He had to break the kiss to get her fully onto it, and smiled down at Alex, hovering his face over hers. "I love you," he said suddenly, and Alex blinked, feeling tears rising up.

Then she was crying, and Justin shifted his arms, hugged her. "It's okay.... Alex, it's okay. What's wrong? Did I say something wrong?"


	12. Chapter 12

"Justin... do you really love me? Would you still love me without... without the sex?"

"Oh, Alex...." Justin gave his little sister a squeeze, then kissed her cheeks, tasting her tears. "Yes. I love you, with or without the sex." Freeing one arm, he rolled to the side, held her against himself, started to stroke her hair with the now-freed hand. "Listen to me. I've always loved you. I always will, no matter what."

He paused a moment, kissed Alex on the forehead, then pulled back to look her in the eyes. "If you don't want to, it's okay. I'll still love you. Okay?"

She swallowed and nodded, clinging to him tightly, and he kissed her forehead again, then gently pulled her head against his shoulder and held her, continuing to kiss her on the side of the head every few seconds.

After half a minute or so, Alex's sobs stopped, and then she pulled her head back, wiping at her tear-streaked face. "Do... do you have any Kleenex? I must be a mess."

"Here," he said, reaching backward to the desk to grab the box he had there. Justin pulled out three and handed them to Alex. "And you're not a mess. You're beautiful, like always. You're perfect."

Justin lay in silence, watching as Alex wiped her face, holding onto her loosely, wondering what she was thinking. Then she was done, and he reached up carefully to her cheek, stroked it with a feather-light touch. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she said, nodding. "I... I'm sorry about that. I guess I'm not handling all this as well as I thought I was."

"I'm sorry." Justin shifted a little, to a more comfortable position to hold Alex in. "I know it's hard. I never meant to stick you in this situation." He sighed, then went on, "Sometimes I think we should make everyone forget me again. At least now I'd have a place to sleep regardless."

Alex giggled a little then. "I don't think I could stand hearing any more about how you look just like Uncle Ernesto. But thank you." She slid up a little, planted a kiss on Justin's cheek. Smiling, he turned his head and kissed Alex on the forehead.

"Well, yeah." He shifted again and scooted down on the bed, bringing his face level with Alex's, then stroked her cheek. "I wish I could make it all better for you, though. I love you."

Alex smiled at that, moved her face forward and kissed him on the lips. "I love you too. And you do make everything better." She pulled back and looked into her brother's eyes for a few moments, smiling, then stopped. "Okay, we need to stop this before we get so sappy someone taps us for syrup."

Grinning, Justin pulled Alex closer and kissed her, sliding his tongue into her mouth, then broke it almost immediately. "Well, you do taste sweet. Are you feeling sticky anywhere?"

"Ewwww." Alex made a face, but kept smiling even as she did. "Don't be gross. Little brothers are supposed to be gross, not big brothers."

"Okay, I'll make a note of that." He moved back a little, swung one leg off the bed, then the other, so he was kneeling beside the bed, looking at his little sister. "All right. Get off the bed -- you and I are going to go have some non-sexual fun. Because I love you, and not just for that. Okay?"

Alex made a doubtful frown. "Are you sure? I'm okay now -- I don't want you to hurt or anything. We can go ahead if you want to."

"I'll be fine." Justin leaned forward and kissed Alex softly. "Waiting a few hours won't kill me." He grinned and ran his hand down Alex's side, following the curves of her waist and hip. "But when we get back, I am going to do things to you that'll have you sore for days."

"Promise?" Alex gave him a teasing smile as she sat up on the bed. Justin handed Alex her skirt, and she pulled it back on, then stood. He had the scarf then, and she took a minute with his mirror to get it tied back into her hair. Standing behind her, Justin ran his fingers through her hair as she did that.

"You have the most beautiful hair I've ever seen. Even when we were little, it was always so nice." He leaned forward a little, putting his nose in her hair, and breathed in the scent of it.

"I know," she said, preening a little in the mirror at him. "It's because I'm naturally wonderful." As Alex spoke, she picked up her tank top, put it back on over the ribbed top. "Okay, I'm ready. Where are we going?"

"Come here and stand on my feet and you'll see."

"Wow... that sounds like a really bad pick-up line." She smiled, stepping onto Justin's feet. "You know, you've got to find a better way to do this. It's good for you that I don't like to wear heels."

*

Justin ducked just in time to avoid a face-full of water, laughing as he did. "Oh! I'm gonna get you!" Alex yelled, trying to splash him again. A wave pushed her forward as she did, though, and she stumbled forward as Justin lunged to try to grab her. The two of them fell down with a splash, then came up a moment later.

"Ahh! I've got salt water in my eyes!" Alex randomly flailed with one arm, feeling for Justin, and he grabbed it, then stepped in closer to her.

"Keep your eyes closed. I'll carry you to the shower." Alex didn't answer, but put her arms around Justin's neck as he picked her up. She let her head lean on her brother's arm, her eyes tightly shut.

After a few moments, Alex grinned. "You know, I can't tell where you're carrying me. You could be taking me back into the trees to do bad things to me. Are you going to do bad things to me, Justin?"

"Wow, someone's feeling better already. Why don't we get the salt water out of your eyes first, and then we'll see. Here we are," he went on, setting Alex down on her feet. "Just tilt your head back while I turn the water on."

"Yes, sir." Alex smiled. "I love how you take care of me, and -- oh!" Alex shut her mouth as the water turned on, then reached and started wiping at her face.

A minute or so later, she stepped out from under the shower and into Justin's arms. "Thank you."

Hugging Alex tightly, Justin smiled. "It was nothing -- couldn't let you stumble up here with your eyes hurting."

"No -- I mean, for this whole thing. How'd you find this place anyway?" She looked around at the beach they were on, taking in the blue crystal water, white sand, gently swaying palm trees. A scattering of people were visible up and down the beach, but it wasn't crowded at all, with the nearest group perhaps a hundred yards down.

"I found it on Google, by searching for private beaches. We shouldn't be here, really, but...." He made a lopsided smile, then shrugged.

"Awww... you broke rules for me. That's so sweet." Alex stretched up to kiss her brother on the cheek, hugging him again. "And thank you for the bikini." She kissed him again.

"Well, that's as much for me as for you," he answered, looking her up and down. "And may I say, it looks great on you." Alex blushed a little, but smiled back at him. There was a moment's pause as they looked at each other, and then Justin leaned his head down and kissed Alex, moving one hand to the back of her head, holding her in the kiss as he played with her lips, pulling lightly on them with his own.

She kissed him back, pressing against him, the bare skin of her belly against his, and she felt like squirming suddenly, feeling warm and safe in her brother's arms, and suddenly excited as well. Her kissing became enthusiastic, and Justin responded in kind, tightening his arms around her, almost lifting her.

They broke the kiss after almost half a minute, looked into each other's eyes. "Justin?"

"Yes?" He brought a hand up, brushed at Alex's wet hair, pulling it back where a lock had fallen into her face.

"Let's go home." She blushed then, suddenly. "I mean... your home."

"It's okay. It's your home too." He paused, seeming on the edge of saying something, then nodded. "Okay," he said, looking around. "Let's get our clothes, and then you can stand on my feet again."

Going up on tiptoe, Alex whispered into Justin's ear, saying "Mmm... yes, sir. I'll stand on your feet anytime you want." Then she burst into giggles. "That still sounds like a bad pickup line!"


	13. Chapter 13

"Shhh... if anyone knows you're in here, we're going to be in major trouble." Justin's voice was just a whisper -- so quiet that Alex could barely hear him, even with him right behind her.

She brought up her hand to stifle a giggle and nodded, then whispered back. "How're we going to get back out -- ohhhh...." That last was prompted by Justin's hands on her, gliding across her skin, moving up her back, onto her shoulders, then pulling her hair aside for him to kiss her where neck and shoulder met.

Putting her head back, Alex let hot water run through her hair and smiled. This was so hot, the two of them in the shower together. The fact that it was the boys' shower on Justin's floor made it even hotter, even if the showers were individual stalls with doors. While no one could see their naked bodies without bringing their head down to look under the door, anyone walking by could see two pairs of feet. Of course, at six in the evening on a Saturday, chances are no one would be walking by, but it still felt deliciously exposed.

Justin put his hand on his sister's cheek, turned her face around far enough for him to kiss her, still standing behind her, his other hand sliding around onto her belly, then up to cup one breast. He squeezed it lightly, then moved his fingers to pinch her nipple slightly between them.

Alex gasped into the kiss, began to move her hips back and forth, teasing Justin. She felt his erection against her, wanted -- no, _needed_ it in her. But not just yet....

Instead, she turned around and pressed her naked body against him, front to front, then kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his torso, reaching her hands up to feel the muscles of his shoulders. Justin took a step forward, pressing Alex between him and the wall. With his right hand, he took hold of her left wrist, lifted it up and pinned it against the wall, looking down into her eyes.

"Mmm... you look delicious. Nice and wet and slippery...." Justin ran his other hand up her side, across her chest, her neck, grasped his little sister's chin between thumb and forefinger. "You know what I'm going to do to you, Alex?"

She shook her head just slightly -- all she could move it, pinned as she was, at the same time staring into Justin's eyes. "No. What are you going to do to me?"

He kissed her then, pulling down on her chin and forcing his tongue into her mouth. Alex moaned into the kiss and squirmed, making her body move against Justin's, feeling tingles up and down her body. _I love it when he's like this. _His hand came off her chin, moved down. Continuing to kiss Alex, Justin slid his hand between her legs, feeling there until he found her entrance, then slid across it, teasing her.

Breaking the kiss, Justin grinned. "Anything I want," he said, moving his finger back and forth, rubbing Alex on the outside and prompting another moan from her.

"I'll let you. You can do whatever you want to me. I'm yours."

Smiling at that, Justin kissed her again for a moment, keeping it a surface kiss this time. "I know," he answered, then moved both his hands, placed them on Alex's thighs, lifted her. She slid up easily, her wet back against wet tile, and he brought her up to where her breasts were at the level of her mouth, took one nipple in his mouth and sucked.

Alex whimpered, feeling totally dominated and loving it. More, she was high enough now to see over the door of the shower stall -- and if anyone walked by, they'd be able to plainly see her face. The thought of getting caught like that excited her, and she shivered a little, then clamped her mouth shut to keep from moaning loudly as Justin moved one of his hands in and stroked her again. A shiver went through her, and she felt the contractions of a small orgasm.

"You like that?" Justin grinned, pushed one finger into her. Alex nodded jerkily, not trusting herself to speak. Letting her back down, Justin withdrew his finger stepped back, roughly turned Alex around. Automatically, she brought her hands up, bracing herself against the wall as her brother slid his hands up and down her wet body, feeling her all over.

As he did, he kissed her neck and shoulders, then nipped her shoulder, prompting a little 'ah' of surprise and pleasure from Alex. His hips were against her butt, and Alex felt his erection pressing against her, started to move her hips against him. "Please... please put it in me. I need you, Justin. I need you so bad...."

He moved his hand down against her butt, gave it a smack -- more symbolic than anything else, as he didn't want to make too much noise, but even that was enough to excite Alex still further, drawing a moan from her. "Oh, Justin... please...."

Justin slid a hand up onto Alex's breast, pinches her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, rolled it slightly. "Please what?"

"Do me... put it in me. Please."

"Well... since you ask so nicely... stay right there." Justin moved back, away from Alex, squatted down quickly where the soap, shampoo, and conditioner were, picked up the condom that was with them. It took him two tries to tear it open, between wet hands and hurrying fingers, but then it was open, and he took it and unrolled it onto himself, looking at Alex posed against the wall, her hips at an inviting angle.

Stepping back behind her, he felt for her entrance with his fingers, found it, moved himself into place. Then he pushed forward, and Alex shivered and moaned again, feeling the sudden fullness as he entered her. She was very, very wet and ready, and he slid in easily, until his hips were pressed against her and he was completely in her.

"Oh... oh, Justin...." Alex moved her hips back and forth, trying to work herself on him, but her position was too precarious for that. And then he was moving, one hand on her shoulder, the other on her hip, taking slow, long strokes. It was different from how he usually did her, not as intense, but it still felt good.

He kept that pace up for a few minutes, then sped up, growing bolder as they remained undiscovered. The faster, harder strokes drove an already-excited Alex over the edge, and she moaned loudly with her orgasm. Immediately, Justin moved his hand from her shoulder to her mouth, stifling the sound. Alex moaned more loudly in response, her orgasm intensifying at the feeling of being controlled so.

And then Justin suddenly stopped, all the way inside her. Alex started to turn her head, opened her mouth to try to ask what was going on -- although with Justin's hand on her mouth, she wasn't sure how much good it would do. Then she heard the outer door of the bathroom closing and froze as well, realizing what was going on.

They held their position like that as they listened, the water streaming down onto Justin's back and shoulders, trickling down across him and onto Alex, running down both their legs.

Both their heads were turned to watch under the door as they listened to the footsteps. _No, no, no,_ Alex was thinking, _don't turn this way. Don't be here to take a shower. Just brush your teeth, or go to the bathroom, or whatever else, but don't come this way!_


	14. Chapter 14

_Fuck fuck fuck -- I'm gonna get kicked out of the dorm if we're caught like this. Or expelled. And then I'll have to come up with some explanation to give mom and dad...._ Justin watched under the door, gritting his teeth. _Please just be another of the guys -- not a janitor, or a dorm monitor checking things out...._

And then the feet appeared -- bare male feet, legs going up to the hem of a robe. Justin almost sighed in relief, then turned his face back to Alex, kissed her on the shoulder again, began to move his hips.

"Justin," Alex whispered, "what are you _doing?_"

"Shhh. It's just one of the guys," Justin whispered back. "If we don't make any noise, he won't know that we're doing anything in here."

"I don't know about this -- mmph!" The last was made as Justin covered Alex's mouth again and started to move fully back and forth in her. His hand slid up her belly, back onto her breast, cupped it, squeezed gently.

Alex heard the water turn on in the next stall and moaned into her brother's hand, thinking, _Oh -- he's right in the next stall. And we're having sex right here... and Justin's -- oh!_ She shivered as he thrust in hard suddenly, pushing into her very deeply in this position, then moaned as he leaned forward and whispered into her ear. "You like that? You like me holding you like this, Alex? You're at my mercy...." As he spoke, he'd been drawing out slowly, and then he thrust in hard again, with enough force to make Alex have to brace harder against the wall.

"Let's see what you can take without making any noise...." He gave her four quick, hard thrusts, and Alex sucked in her lips and closed her eyes, trying not to moan. Grinning, Justin continued to thrust fast and hard, then licked his sister's neck, planted a sucking kiss on it. She squirmed and bit her lip, and Justin chuckled. "Remember, Alex, you can't make any noise. Not any noise at all."

A tremor started in Alex's thighs, and she bit her lip harder, determined not to make any noise even as she felt an orgasm starting -- but Justin seemed to feel her trembling, and his hand slipped down between her thighs and gently stroked her there. _Oh! That's not fair! _she thought even as the orgasm hit fully.

"I knew you couldn't do it," Justin whispered, and she twisted her head to give him a look. Taking Alex's cheek, Justin kissed her, slowing his strokes to do it. She returned the kiss, waited until he broke it.

"Only because you cheated!" she whispered then, and Justin chuckled, then sped up the pace of his strokes again, changing to a one-two rhythm -- a harder stroke, then a softer one, alternating.

"Didn't anyone tell you? All's fair in love and war...." Another tremor ran through Alex's body as Justin pinched her nipple again, twisted it just enough send a delicious pang through her. He drove into her at the same time, and Alex bit her lip and closed her eyes against the sensations flooding through her. Then she grinned and began to buck back against Justin, riding him in return.

She grinned more as that got a moan from Justin. Alex had to turn her head almost painfully to see his face, see him frowning as he tried to keep the moan down, and she moved one of her hands to cover her own mouth as she giggled -- but she kept rocking herself back onto him. "Looks like I'm not the only one who can't keep quiet," she whispered.

"You... are so damn sexy, Alex...."

"I know," she whispered back with a smile. "I make you want to pound me, don't I? You want to just go like a jackhammer until you can't hold back any more, don't you, Justin? Come on, big brother.... you know you want to. Come on... oh!"

Suddenly, he was going fast and hard, his hips smacking into Alex hard enough to push her forward on each thrust -- and hard enough to make noise. A _lot_ of noise. "Justin -- I thought we were being quiet...."

"The hell with that," was Justin's response, and Alex had to giggle again. "Right now," he whispered hoarsely, "I don't care if the whole damn floor -- ohhhh!" A wordless moan was all he could get out then, and Alex felt his strokes become erratic and smiled, knowing that he was coming.

Justin's arms wrapped around Alex tightly as he stopped, then gave her a hug that was painfully tight. "Oh, Alex... that was great," he whispered.

"Oh, well... you know, just an average effort for me," she replied, tilting her head before she pushed her face forward and kissed Justin. It took a moment before he kissed back, and when he did, Alex opened her mouth just a little, inviting Justin's tongue in. He responded to her invitation and Alex sighed gently into it, ignoring the water running all over the two of them.

Breaking the kiss, they both looked at each other for a second, then laughed and pressed together. A voice from the next stall brought them back to reality -- "Hey! You got a girl in here, man?"

"No! No, I just... just thought of something funny." Quickly, Justin reached and turned the water off, then grabbed a towel and wrapped it around Alex. "On my feet," he whispered, and Alex was barely onto them when they were in his room. "I'll be right back," Justin said as Alex stepped off, and she nodded as he disappeared again.

Alex looked around the room and sighed. "Oh, hell... he has my clothes!" she said, then giggled, wondering how he'd explain _that_ if anyone noticed. After taking a minute to dry off, she found Justin's hair brush, then set to brushing her hair. She'd been at that for a couple of minutes when a knock came at the door. _Did Justin forget his key? _

Making sure the towel was wrapped securely about her, Alex went to the door, opened it. "Ye -- oh. Hi." She didn't bother faking a friendly smile as she saw Beth standing there.

The older girl blinked in evident surprise at Alex, then looked past her. "Is... is Justin here?"

"Yes. He's hiding behind the door. It's a game we play. It's called, 'hide behind the door.'"

"What?" Beth blinked again, this time with a confused expression.

_Wow. Really bright one we've got here,_ Alex thought with a roll of her eyes. "No, he's not here. Are you looking for more homework help?"

"Yeah... I've got this math problem here --" She pulled out a book and flipped it open, prompting Alex to raise a hand.

"Whoa. Not the math whiz here. That's my br --" _Oh shit. What else starts with 'br'? Think fast, Alex.... _ "My brown-eyed boy. Justin. The math whiz."

"What?"

"You say that a lot. Is it like a tic?" Alex gave her best innocent look, fighting to keep from smirking.

"What? I mean -- no!" Beth frowned and looked up and down the hall. "Is Justin going to be back soon?"

"Maybe. But he's going to be busy all night. _Very_ busy, if you know what I mean."

"Oh, well... I'll come back tomorrow, then."

"He'll be busy then too. In fact, he's going to be busy all week." Alex started to close the door, but Beth put her foot into it.

"Look... what is your problem? I'm not here to try to steal your boyfriend, okay? I just want to ask him a question."

_Yeah, right._ "Well, then... _You've got the hots, now you'll have the nots, you were in love, now it you'll snap out of!"_ Alex snapped her hand forward, making the gesture to go with the spell -- but just as she did, Beth turned to the side -- and Justin stepped forward. Alex watched in horror as her spell hit Justin. _Oh no. Oh no. Don't work!_


	15. Chapter 15

Justin shook his head for a moment, then blinked, looking at Beth. _Damn, she's hot. Why didn't I notice how hot she is before?_ He started to give her a smile, then looked to his left, noticing Alex there. His little sister was wrapped in the towel he'd teleported her into the room in, and Justin felt his face color a little at her standing there like that with Beth there.

_Well, what else is she going to stand in? I've got her clothes._ That brought to mind what they'd just been doing, and he felt his face color more as a mixture of guilt and shame flooded through him. _Oh Lord. I am the worst brother in the world. Literally. She's my sister. She's sixteen. Mom and Dad wouldn't be happy about her having sex like she is with anybody, and... and especially with me._

He realized, then, that he'd been standing there a good twenty seconds without saying a word, and Beth and Alex were both looking at him curiously as he stood there blushing. "Oh, umm... Beth, Alex. You know each other," he said, stalling, then blushed a little more at the lameness of what he'd just said.

"Yeah," Beth replied, still giving Justin a curious look. "But I came to talk to you. I'm not understanding this problem here..." She lifted up her math book, opening it and pointing, and Justin looked automatically. "Oh, that's simple, you just --"

He cut off then as Alex cleared her throat a little. "Umm... it's not due until Monday, right? I'll come by later and show you, okay?"

"Okay," she said, nodding and snapping the book closed. "I'll see you later. Bye!"

"Bye," he answered, then watched her go for a moment, his eyes automatically flicking to the gentle sway of Beth's butt as she walked away. Then Alex's hand was on his upper arm, pulling him into the room, and he stepped in. She closed the door and immediately turned on him.

"You were checking out her butt!" She looked angry, and Justin knew intellectually that she looked really, really cute like that, but -- there was nothing there but a bit of annoyance and guilt about being caught. Alex looked him upand down, reached and took her clothes from under his arm, then suddenly dropped the towel. Normally she didn't do that, instead letting him order her to get naked, and he wondered exactly what she was doing.

For a long moment, Alex stood there, watching him. Justin looked her up and down, his eyes taking in the curves of her hips and swell of her breasts. _Wow. She's grown a lot in the last two years,_ he thought, but what he felt was a vague sense of embarrassment, both for her, standing naked like that, and at the stirring he felt below. _She's my sister. I shouldn't be getting horny looking at my sister!_

He turned then, looking away, only to look back a moment later as he heard a sob. "Justin? Don't you want to look at me?"

*

Three hours later, Alex was at home in her room. It hadn't gone well from there, and Alex knew why. _My spell worked. Justin's not in love with me now, and that's making him completely weirded out about all the sex we've been having. I can't really blame him for it, though -- it's my fault._

She was in the lair once again, flipping through the magic book, sighing. _Nothing of any help so far. _Intellectually, she knew this wasn't a good time for this -- she was still too upset from the argument she'd had with Justin, and she wasn't thinking straight. On the other hand, though, mom and dad had taken Max out to a movie, and this was the only chance she would likely have to look through the book unsupervised today.

_Yeah. And it's not like I can ask Justin or Dad for help on this. Or even Harper. _She stopped, closed the book, sighed, and stood up. "Wow, all this reading is giving me a headache. And it's not getting me any answers yet. There's got to be someone else who could help...."

But who? Professor Crumbs? No -- no way she wanted to try to explain any of this to him, and he was sharp enough to see through any story she might come up with. Hugh Normous? She could get him to help easily enough, but he wasn't really any better at magic than she was... and she didn't have a good way to contact him anyway. Uncle Kelbo would help if she explained it as a prank, but he wasn't really that good either, when it came to fixing things. And he wasn't good at keeping secrets, so Dad would probably find out eventually, and that was one thing that _couldn't_ happen. The last wizard she knew was TJ.

_He's good at magic. He might be able to help me with this. But can I trust him? He hates Justin.... _Alex stopped, then smiled. _I don't have to tell him it's Justin. And he hates my dad too, so he won't go telling him about it. Yes... I think I'm going to have a little talk with TJ at school tomorrow._

*

"Hey, TJ. Come over here and talk to me for a minute."

"What?" The brown-haired boy looked up at Alex, then narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "You want to talk to me?"

"Yes, that's just what I said." Alex gave him a smile -- faking it, of course, but she was good at faking smiles. _And I'm really, really cute when I smile, which makes things a lot easier._

"I don't think I want to talk to you." TJ turned away from her, looking back into his locker.

Alex held back a sigh. _Of course. Well, that's okay, I figured he'd be like that._ "Oh, well... you're probably not good enough at magic to help anyway, so I guess I'll talk to someone else." She turned and started to walk away, smiled at the near-immediate reaction.

"Oh, I'll show you who's good at magic! What do you need help with?"

Dropping the smile, Alex turned back to TJ. "Well, this girl's been chasing my boyfriend, so I cast an anti-love spell on her, but he took a step at the wrong moment, and it hit him. So now I need to remove it."

TJ stared at her for a moment, then blinked. "That's _it?_ Hell, I thought you might want something _difficult_." He made a sneer of superiority, and Alex suppressed the urge to smack it off his face.

"Okay, then, if it's so easy, how do you do it?"

"I guess your dad must be so caught up in not letting you _do_ any magic that he forgets to _teach _you any. Two contradictory spells cancel each other -- so all you have to do is cast a love spell on him. It'll cancel the anti-love spell, and he'll be back to his normal feelings for you." He raked her up and down with his eyes, sneered a little more. "Which can't be that great, but maybe you're happy with them."

_Oh, he is so looking for a smackdown._ "Uh-huh. Well, I'd say it's been nice talking to you, but it really hasn't. Let's not do this again later, okay?" Before he could reply to that, she was around the corner, feeling the best she had all day. _Okay... so, I get Justin to drink a love potion, and everything's fixed! This'll be cake!_


	16. Chapter 16

_All right. Got it all ready. Now I just need to find a way to get Justin to drink his half. _Alex looked at the two halves of the love potion and smiled a little. _And make sure not to drink the other half myself, because I don't need my head swelling up._ Things were simpler back then, before she and Justin had fallen in love. _Or before we'd realized we were in love. I think I loved him already, even then. And I know he's always taken care of me._

As Alex thought, she drank one half of the potion, then took the other and carefully poured it into a small flask. _Good thing Dad had this old flask of Grandpa's. I can sneak it along, and get it into Justin's drink. And then everything'll be good again._

"Hey... watcha doin'?" She almost jumped at Max's voice. _Uh-oh. Think fast._

"I'm mixing... cleaning fluid. Yeah. For when we have those hard-to-clean spills down in the sub shop."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Alex gave him her 'aren't I cute and helpful' smile. _Always works on Dad._ "It's for when I'm cleaning things."

"Dang. I was hoping it would be a love potion!"

"What? What? Why do you want a love potion?" Alex immediately regretted asking Max this question, but there was no taking it back now.

"Well, you see, I love cookies. If cookies loved me too, then they'd come to me, right?"

Alex shook her head, groaning inwardly at Max's logic. But he didn't seem to be suspecting anything, so that was good. Putting the flask into her purse, Alex moved over to Max and ruffled his hair with her hand. "Wow. Someday, you're going to make some lucky therapist very, very rich."

"You really think so? Thanks!" Max grinned and ran off, and Alex shook her head again. _Weird. Of course, I don't know why I'd expect normal around here._

*

_All right, where is Justin?_ Alex had knocked eight times on his door, getting progressively louder, then used the "go through mo through" spell to get in. _Well, let's see what clues we can find..._ She walked to his desk, started to look through what was there. _Introduction to Calculus, People and Society, Dungeons & Gargoyles Player's Handbook... oh my God, three days without me and he's having a geek relapse. Oh, what's this?_

_Freshman Mixer, 7:00 - 10:00, sixth floor lounge... tonight. Huh. Like a party, only lamer. Well, I'll bet that's where Justin is. Mixing. _She patted her purse, smiled. _Well, I'll just slip this into his drink, and then all the mixing he'll want to do will be with me._

Ten minutes later, Alex was threading her way through the crowded lounge. The mixer was more crowded than she'd thought it would be, but that was good -- less chance that Justin would notice her before she could get the potion into his drink. It was, however, about as lame as she'd expected -- no dancing, no DJ, just a buffet table with a punch bowl, and finger foods, and a whole lot of students standing or sitting around and talking.

_Ah. There he is._ Justin was talking to two other guys, both nerdy-looking. They were standing by the end of the buffet, gesturing and talking. She couldn't tell what they were saying from where she was, but the blondish one made a gesture with both hands like swinging a sword, and she instantly knew. _Dungeons & Gargoyles, check. Well, at least he's not talking to any girls. And if they keep up in this vein... yes!_

As she approached, going around the table to come up from behind Justin, he set his drink down on the end of the table so he could gesture as well. _I am so good, I couldn't have planned this better._ She was behind Justin, then, and smiling as she took out the flask and uncapped it, and then --

Someone tapped her on the shoulder. She spun quickly to face them, moving her hand to hold the flask behind her back. "Uhh... yes?" Alex said, looking quickly at her interrupter. It was a guy, just barely taller than her, with reddish-brown hair that looked like his mom had cut it for him, glasses about two sizes too big for his face, and a smile that showed buck teeth. He was holding two cups of the punch.

"Hi, I'm Bernard," he said, nodding to her. "I saw you were alone over here, and I thought you might like some punch."

"Oh, gee, thank you." Alex set the flask on the table, still behind her back, and took the cup he offered her. "I'm Alex. It's nice to meet you."

"So," he asked, running his finger around the rim of his drink nervously, "how're you liking it here in the dorms?" He looked at her, blushed slightly, then looked down.

_Oh, wow. He's probably never even talked to a girl before, as shy as he's acting. And now if I talk to him, he's going to crush on me instantly. Not what I need._

"Actually, I don't live here. I'm just up here looking for a friend of mine -- oh, and there she is." Alex stood up on tiptoe and waved, as if trying to get someone's attention, then turned back to Bernard quickly. "I'm sorry, but I've got to go get her -- she's not seeing me. Thanks for the drink, though!"

She moved away hurriedly, slipping past a knot of tall guys who were talking, then glancing back. They were big enough to hide her from Bernard, and she sighed in relief, then started to work her way through the crowd again, keeping an eye on the table to make sure Bernard would move away from it.

That's when she realized the flask was still on the table. _Oh no. On the table and open... I have got to get back to it!_

*

"Oh, hey, Roger, look -- somebody left a flask here. Wonder what's in it?" The boy picked it up and took a swig, licked his lips. "Mmm... good, whatever it is."

"God, man," Roger said, shaking his head and looking around to see if anyone had seen that, "you're going to get in trouble one of these days, drinking anything you find lying around."

"Yeah, yeah. You want some?" the boy asked, holding the flask out to Roger.

"No thanks." Roger held up a hand between himself and the flask. "I'm not drinking strange booze. Besides, the owner'll come back looking for it in a few minutes."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Still...." the boy cocked his head to the side and eyed the punch bowl. "You think we should liven this party up?"

Roger held both hands up this time and backed away. "Uh-uh. Leave me out of this." Once he was safely a few steps away, he turned and moved off into the crowd.

The boy looked at the flask, then at the punch bowl again. He looked around, quickly tipped the flask into the bowl, then set it back down where it had been.

And that was when he saw her. She had curly black hair that shone glossily in the light, big brown eyes he felt like he could fall into, and the cutest face he thought he'd ever seen. He'd heard of love at first sight, but had never believed in it -- lust, maybe, but love? An hour ago he would have laughed at the idea, but now he swallowed with a mouth suddenly dry, watching the black-haired angel move through the crowd with a grace and poise that could not be believed.

Someone nudged him aside to get to the punch bowl, and he took a step forward, toward her, uncaring. Five minutes ago, he would've made a scene over the nudge, itching as he'd been to make some kind of disturbance, but now that no longer mattered. Nothing mattered but her.

And then she was coming his way, and he stepped aside for her, looked her up and down slowly, drinking in every inch of her. The beauty picked up the flask and her face creased in a mixture of annoyance and puzzlement. The boy ached to ease whatever might be troubling her, and he stepped forward even as she looked around. Behind him, he felt someone else brush by, going to the punch bowl, but ignored it. "Oh, _hell_," he heard her say, and then he cleared his throat to speak.

"Umm... is that yours?"

"Yes! Did you see who drank it?" She was looking at him, and he could feel his heart thudding like it was trying to pop out of his chest as he stared into those soft brown eyes. "Hello?" She waved her hand in front of his face, and it was as perfect as the rest of her. He reached for her wrist, but she pulled it back too quickly.

"Oh no. _You _drank it, didn't you?" Struck dumb, he could only nod as he gazed upon her. She made a frustrated "ohhh", stamped her foot, then gestured to him. "Come on, then. Let's get where I can do this without anyone hearing." She walked away and he followed, almost tripping over his own feet in his haste to catch up with her.

*

_Great. So much for the love potion. And we're all out of two of the ingredients now, so I'm going to have to come up with something else, once I get this guy de-loved. At least I already know the spell for that. _She stopped out in the hall, looked around to make sure no one was around, then turned back to the boy who was following her. "Okay. You just stand still a moment. Oh, and put your fingers in your ears and close your eyes. Got it?"

"Anything you wish, my love," he said, then proceeded to do as asked while Alex rolled her eyes. "_You've got the hots, now you'll have the nots, you were in love, now it you'll snap out of!" _The spell went right into him, and she smiled, then reached and pulled one arm down. "Okay. All done."

He opened his eyes, then, and blinked a few times, then spoke. "Uhh... not to be rude, but who the heck are you, and why did I follow you out here?"

"Well, you see... oh, heck, skip it, it'll take too long to explain. Just go back to the party. And don't go drinking out of other people's drinks. And if you do, don't drink the whole thing."

"Oh, I didn't drink it all," he said. "I poured most of it into the punch bowl."

"YOU DID _WHAT_?!" Alex looked past him to the door of the lounge, then covered her eyes with her hand and shuddered. _Oh no. How many people have gotten drinks from the punch bowl since then? How many have already drunk them? What am I going to _do_?_


	17. Chapter 17

Alex opened the door carefully and peeked into the lounge. A couple of heads turned, looked at her curiously, then turned away. _Okay. At least it's not everyone._

_Not yet,_ the pessimistic part of her said, and she sighed. _It's been what, five minutes, maybe? Probably not more than half a dozen people have gone and gotten new glasses of punch. This isn't going to be so...._

"Here! Have a fresh cup of punch!" A tall brunette with a pixie-cut was handing out cups, giving them to three people, each of whom immediately took a sip. She bore a tray with cups on it -- a dozen cups at least, and the tray was less than half full.

_... bad. This is bad. Really bad._ She closed the door and stepped back out into the hall, turned her back to the wall and leaned against it. Alex took three deep breaths, then nodded her head. _Okay, job one: make sure no more people get the punch._

She turned and headed back into the lounge, making a beeline -- at least, the line a bee who was having to weave its way among the flowers might make -- toward the punch bowl. As she passed one boy, he turned and looked at her, blinking, then reached out to try to touch her. Alex made a quick step forward, then moved left, putting someone between them even as he said, "Wait! I need to talk to you!"

_I can do this. It may be a big mess, but it won't be as bad as when I did the chocolate slide._ "Excuse me," she said, stepping past someone who was picking up a cup, "I just need to get some --"

Putting a hand on the edge of the punch bowl, she leaned forward over it, as if trying to reach something on the other side. Then, Alex let one foot slide, dropping her weight onto the edge, sending the punch bowl's contents pouring out onto the floor while she appeared to accidentally fall.

Immediately, two people were helping her up. She looked up at them, was relieved to see that neither was Justin, not wanting to explain to him what was going on. _Okay, job one done. Now...._ The thought came to a screeching halt as Alex looked around. Almost the whole room was looking at her -- and a lot of them were _staring_ at her, and then starting to move toward her, quite a few of them abandoning the conversation they'd already been in.

_Uh-oh. The Zombie Love Horde is coming._ _Time to get moving._ "Sorry... gotta run. You know how it is...." Alex pulled away from the two guys who'd helped her up -- or tried to, as one of them held on.

"Wait a minute, please -- I have to talk to you! At least tell me your name!"

"Oh... my name is Jennifer. And if you let me go _right now_, I'll go out with you." He let go, smiling, and Alex pulled away. "Sorry, had my fingers crossed." She took off for the door, saying "Excuse me! Coming through! In a hurry! Matter of life and love!"

People were still staring rather than moving, and Alex tried her best to weave her way through them, but it wasn't going well. There was another guy coming, reaching for her arm, and she stepped back away from him, but that took her farther from the door. _They're closing in... what can I do?! Ah!_

Bringing one leg up, she said, "_Geilsjay Timesday!_" then breathed out a sigh of relief as everyone stopped moving. _Oh, hey, convenient targets._ She took a sideways hop, grabbed onto one guy's arm with her left hand to steady herself, then took her wand in her right hand and started working on those who she knew had been under the spell's effect. "_You've got the hots, now you'll have the nots, you were in love, now it you'll snap out of!"_

After half a dozen repetitions of the spell, Alex had to stop to wiggle her leg, hoping she could keep the cramp she could feel coming at bay a little longer. _This one couldn't have been one of those nice, short, two-word spells, no. _She'd almost exhausted the list of people who she was sure were under the spell; she hoped that was all of them, but at the very least, it should give her enough of a lead on any others to get out of the room and get away.

Alex zapped two more, then started her slow hopping way toward the door, using people along the way to lean on. Halfway there she put her leg down and started to walk quickly as the people around her started moving again -- it wouldn't do to get a cramp and not be able to walk. Making it out the door, she broke into a slightly off-canter run, favoring her right leg as she made for the elevator.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid!_ Alex leaned against the wall of the elevator and sighed. _I should have used the time stop spell in the first place, to get the potion into Justin's drink. Well, too late now -- no more of the ingredients to make it. That puts me to the backup plan..._

*

"Okay, so... let me get this straight. You want me to put a love arrow into your _brother_? To make him be in love with _you_?"

Alex blushed deeply and nodded. "That's right. You can do it, right? And you're not going to tell anyone about it?"

"Hey, what do I know about value judgments? I'm just a baby." Cupid looked up at Alex with big, round blue eyes, then cooed. "And like the ad says, complete confidentiality. You want your brother in love with you -- that's nobody's business. Love strikes where it will. Where _I_ will."

"Good." Letting out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding, Alex smiled. "So, we just have to get you somewhere where you can shoot Justin. Let's see...."

*

Two days later, Alex was pushing a stroller along the sidewalk at the university campus, feeling incredibly silly. As if the stroller itself wasn't bad enough, she was wearing a blonde wig. She looked horrible in it, she thought, but it would keep Justin from spotting her and recognizing her. And it had been really cheap at the thrift store, which was good, since she'd blown pretty much all the money she had paying Cupid.

Cupid, who seemed to be enjoying himself immensely. They'd been out here for half an hour, since Alex couldn't remember exactly when Justin's class change was, and it seemed like half the girls who had walked by had wanted to look at the 'baby'.

_Baby my ass. When he grabbed that girl's breast, that was no accident. Ah, well. Another fifteen minutes and I should be rid of the little perv...._

"Excuse me..." It was a guy's voice, behind Alex, and she turned to look. He was reasonably cute, with hair that flopped to the side in an emo way, matching the From Autumn to Ashes hoodie and tight jeans.

"Yes?"

He looked Alex in the eyes for just a moment, and then his eyes dropped down. "I, um..." A pause, a scratch of the ear. "I don't normally do this kind of thing, but I just saw you over here, and --"

"Were you at the mixer in Dorm G two days ago?"

"Huh?" He looked up at her, dropped his eyes away again, the faintest hint of a blush coming up. "Yes. Why?"

_Figures. Wonder how many more there are out there. _"Oh, nothing -- just _you've got the hots, now you'll have the nots, you were in love, now it you'll snap out of. _So, what were you going to say?"

"What?" He blinked, looking confused, and this time, was able to look Alex in the eyes. His were a bright blue, and Alex smiled a little. _Wow, he's cute. _

"I, umm, uh..."

"Trevor, what are you doing?" A girl stepped up, also in emo fashion, wearing an annoyed expression as she looked from Trevor to Alex and back.

"Oh, uh... I was just telling her how cute her baby is. Isn't that right?"

"Yes, that's right." _And has a girlfriend. Well, good thing I got him de-potioned. Probably hasn't been acting right to her this whole time._

"Oh." The girl looked down as if noticing the baby for the first time, leaned down and tickled his chin, smiling. "He is cute."

"Thank you," Alex said, with a somewhat forced smile. _Yes, he's cute. Now get out of the way before he has to shoot._ She looked around, looking for Justin. He should be coming out of the science building there some time soon. He'd better be, at least -- she could skip her study hall without any problems, but if she missed History, Harper would be asking where she was.

"You have a good day too," she said to them absently as they left. _Holding hands. Must be nice._

She turned to look back -- and there he was. _Justin!_ Quickly, Alex leaned down and tapped Cupid, pointing. "There he is!" she hissed. "Shoot!"

"Gotcha." Cupid fumbled out his bow and arrow, drew, took aim, let fly. The arrow flew straight, and sunk right into Justin's thigh. His hand went to the spot automatically, and Alex's heart leaped. _Okay... now I just have to get his attention._

She snatched off the wig, started to run toward Justin as he was straightening back up, waving her arm and calling. "Justin!"


	18. Chapter 18

Justin started to look up, toward Alex, and her heart leapt -- then sank as Gina came running out of the building, obviously in a hurry, and ran right into Justin. They both fell down, Gina on top, and Justin looked up at her -- then was taking her head in both hands, was about to kiss her --

"Oh no! I've worked too hard for this! _McReary Timereary!_"

*

Cupid was about to shoot, and Alex reached down, pushed the bow down just slightly as he did. The arrow flew and struck Justin in the calf as he took at step, and he fell down.

"Hey! What'd you do that for?" Cupid cried, but Alex wasn't listening at all.

"Justin!" she called out, running forward, taking off her wig as she did. Gina ran out from the building, ran past Justin, almost stepping on him. He looked up toward Alex's voice -- and a beagle came bounding forward, happy to see someone's face at licking level, began to immediately lick Justin's face. Alex watched as her brother looked at the beagle, reached for it....

"_McReary Timereary!"_

*

Alex pushed down the bow just slightly, didn't even wait to see the arrow hit before she was moving this time. "Justin!" she called, pulling out her wand as she did, then aimed it to the side. "You've been a good little pupper, now here's a nice juicy steak for supper!"

The beagle dove for the steak, eyes big, even as Gina ran past Justin. He looked up... and Alex's eyes met his. Justin smiled at Alex, and it felt wonderful, better than anything had in days. She fell onto her knees next to him, smiling and suddenly crying. And then he was lifting her up, taking her in his arms, holding her against his chest. "Hey... what's wrong? Alex?"

"I love you," she sobbed out, but saying it once wasn't enough. "I love you, Justin."

He stroked her hair, kissed her on the forehead, rocked her a little side-to-side. "I love you too. It's okay. Whatever's wrong, we'll fix it. Don't we always?"

Still crying, Alex let out a little laugh, then nodded. "We do. We always do. Oh, Justin, I love you."

"I know. I love you too." People around were looking at them now, some with curious looks. Justin glanced around, loosened his grip on his sister just a little. "Come on. We're going home --"

"No, no, not home, no --" Alex was shaking her head and clinging tightly, and Justin hugged her tight for a moment before speaking again.

"Not mom and dad home. My dorm. Our home." That brought another sob out of Alex as a spark of joy shot through her. _Our home. Justin's and mine._

"Okay," she said, nodding. "Let's go."

*

"So, third time was the charm, huh?" Justin smiled at Alex, leaned forward and kissed her lightly. "Well, I'm glad you thought of the redo spell. I was feeling pretty horrible there too. Life's not as much fun without you."

"Well, I'm glad you realize that. Makes me feel more sure that you won't go chasing after any other girls." She kissed him back, taking her time about it, enjoying laying there on Justin's bed with him, their arms about each other.

"You don't have to worry about that. I don't think I could love anyone else like I do you." Smiling, Justin caressed Alex's shoulder, gently ran his fingertips down along her arm to her hand, then leaned in and kissed her again, letting his tongue touch her lips. Then he rolled over, pinning Alex under him.

She giggled. "Mmmm... I think I feel something poking me. How many days has it been now?"

"Too many," Justin answered, then grinned. "But you're going to get a spanking first, you bad girl."

"Bad?" Alex frowned, looking up at her brother. "What did I do?"

"You broke a rule. So you have to get punished." Alex opened her mouth to protest, but Justin shook his head, putting a finger to her lips to silence her. "Rule four. I love you. Always and forever."

Smiling then, Alex nodded. "You're right. I did break that rule." She paused a moment, eyes glittering as she looked up at Justin, then wriggled under him. "So I guess I do need a spanking."

"That's right," he answered, moving a hand to his little sister's butt, caressing it, then kneading it slightly. "You do." He pulled his hand back, smacked her lightly, and Alex made a little 'oh', even though it was too light to really hurt through her clothes.

Then she smiled. "Mmm... I hardly even felt that. I'll bet you're not really going to spank me."

"Oh, I will." Justin's face was just inches from hers, and his eyes were looking into Alex's with an almost startling intensity as he smiled tightly.

"Maybe I won't let you." Alex wriggled under him, moving to Justin's left. He put his hand down on that side, leaned on it to block her, then smacked her again with his right hand, harder this time.

"No, you're not getting away. You're going to take what's coming to you."

Alex put on a perfectly innocent expression, blinked up at her big brother. "Something's coming? And I'm going to take it? I don't know what you mean." Then she giggled, and wriggled again under Justin. "Well, actually, I know exactly what you mean," she said, and reached her hand down, cupped Justin through his pants. "Oh... I think it's ready."

"Yes -- but you haven't had all your spanking yet." Justin was breathing a little heavily now, moving his hands up and down Alex, eager for her. He brought his mouth down on hers, kissed her soundly, his tongue probing her, then suddenly smacked her butt again.

Then he stood up off the bed, his hands still on Alex, moving to her pants, undoing them, pulling them off. His movements were quick and eager, but sure as he took them off, dropped them onto the floor, took Alex by the hips and turned her over, pulled her up so her butt stuck out into the air.

He spanked her slowly, alternating cheeks, with smacks that were hard enough to hurt just a little. Alex gasped. After five, Justin stopped, and she opened her mouth, preparing to tease him -- but then he was in her, pushing forward, and she gasped again instead as he gripped her hips and began to take her with hard strokes, his hips smacking against her in another form of spanking.

She came almost immediately, clutching the sheets as a shiver passed up and down her body. Justin smacked the side of her butt with one hand, and she came harder, making a little noise with it that time.

"Tell me, Alex -- who's in charge when we do this?"

"Mmmm...." Alex grinned, then said, "I am?" She gasped as Justin smacked her butt again, harder this time.

"Wrong answer. Try again."

She smiled and closed her eyes. "You are," she said.

Justin stopped, then leaned forward over her, kissed her on the shoulder. "That's right," he said, cupping her breast and squeezing it lightly. "And you remember that. No more casting spells when you're not supposed to. Okay?"

Alex nodded, but even as she did, she was thinking. _Hmm... I wonder, if I duplicated myself, how he'd feel about two of me...._


	19. Afterword

Afterword Thanks to everyone for your kind words! I think the current spot forms a natural end for this story -- but I'm not done with Justin and Alex yet! Look for my next story in this series, "Double, Double, Toil and Trouble", starting in a few days. 


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